MCLB – Albany celebrates black history month

ALBANY, Ga. – Tuesday, the Marine Corps Logistics Base (MCLB) in Albany made sure to remind everyone that Black History Month isn’t over just yet as they honored and celebrated black history at the base chapel this morning.

This year’s program’s theme was “honoring the past, securing the future.”

And to do just that, there were guest performers and base officials spoke on the Marine Corps’ past. They informed the audience, made up partially of students from Dougherty County High, that Albany and Dougherty county were rich with history.

The program’s keynote speaker, the Honorable Ken Hodges, emphasized the need for students to understand and learn about their local history so they can successfully avoid past mistakes, and start creating their own history today.

Honorable Ken Hodges

He said, “It’s important for these young children, and it’s important for everyone, to reflect back on history to make sure that those injustices don’t occur. The key to make sure that we have justice going forward and we have equality and we make this a better place is that we learn from our mistakes. You just got to look back to history.”

Albany resident and congressional gold medal recipient Henry Jackson was also in attendance today. Jackson was one of the first African Americans to be trained once the United States Marine Corps began enlisting African Americans in 1942.

Base Sergeant Major Jeffrey Young said that Jackson was a “trail blazer” and that he’s proud to serve and is thankful that since the 1942, African American’s were given that chance.

Sergeant Major Jeffrey Young

He says, “In America we are a culture that accepts everyone, especially in the Marine Corp, we’re made of different nationalities and races, it shows that everyone has an equal stake and advancement opportunities.”