June 27, 2012

CBS News National Correspondent Byron Pitts reports on the first African-American men allowed to serve in the U.S. Marines. The report will be broadcast tonight, June 27, on the CBS EVENING NEWS WITH SCOTT PELLEY (6:30-7:00 PM, ET) on the CBS Television Network.

In tonight's report, Pitts speaks with 90-year-old James "Rudy" Carter, who enlisted in the Marine Corps when he was 19 to escape the effects of segregation and Jim Crow laws in his native North Carolina.

In 1941, President Franklin ordered the Marines to accept African Americans. For the next 80 years, they served in black-only units commanded by white officers and trained on a segregated base in Jacksonville, North Carolina called Montford Point. Carter and other surviving members of the Montford Point Marines received the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, today in Washington, D.C.

#   #   #

Press Contact:  Lance Frank  212-975-5959  frankl@cbsnews.com