Gilbert Johnson
Early African American in United States Marine Corps
Sergeant Major Gilbert Hubert "Hashmark" Johnson (October 30, 1905 – August 5, 1972) was one of the first African Americans to enlist in the United States Marine Corps and one of the first African American drill instructors in the Marine Corps. Johnson was known as “Hashmark” because he had more service stripes than rank stripes. He retired in 1959 after 32 years of service in the U.S. armed forces, including 17 years as a Marine.
Early years
Gilbert Hubert Johnson was born on October 30, 1905, to a farming family in rural Mount Hebron, Alabama. He attended Stillman College in 1922, aspiring to become a minister, but he left college the following year to join the U.S. Army.
Military service
Johnson enlisted in the 25th Infantry Regiment in 1923, serving two three-year tours. At the end of his enlistment in October 1929, Johnson was discharged as a corporal.
After four years of civilian life, he decided to join the U.S. Navy. In 1933, he enlisted in the Naval Reserve and was accepted into the Stewards Branch, the only job available to blacks at that time, where he served in the Navy for nearly 10 years. In May 1941, he entered the regular Navy.
“Gilbert Johnson” enters the record as early African American in United States Marine Corps. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Gilbert, Johnson and Early can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gilbert Johnson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.