Students of Springfield history may know the name Joseph Budd as the first African American in the city's police department to achieve the rank of sergeant, lieutenant and captain.
Less well known was Budd's service in the U.S. military. He served during World War II in a racially segregated unit called the Montford Point Marines. Cpl. Budd was among 20,000 Black men who served in the unit, now known today as the "Forgotten Warriors" due to their long-delayed recognition of their service.
This weekend, that will change. Budd, who died in 1986, will be posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor bestowed by Congress, at a ceremony in Springfield.
Budd's son, Wayne Budd, is a former U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, as well as associate attorney general of the United States. Wayne Budd is also the father of Chief Justice Kimberly Budd of the state's Supreme Judicial Court.
Kari Njiiri, NEPM: First of all, Mr. Budd, congratulations on this — albeit late —recognition of your father. For those who are not familiar with the Montford Point Marines, who were they and what are they being recognized for?
Wayne Budd, attorney: Well, Kari, thank you for affording me the opportunity to speak with you and your audience regarding the United States Marine Corps back in World War II. As you probably know from history, the Marines were totally all white up until 1942, when President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the commandant of the Marine Corps to start recruiting Black Marines. The response he got initially from the then-commandant was, "I would rather have 5,000 white Marines than 25,000 Black ones."
So you can see that people of my race were not necessarily welcomed with open arms. So that's the Marine Corps that my father enlisted in. At the time he went in, Blacks only did menial, labor work — quartermaster, supply. [There's] nothing wrong with those areas, but that's all our folks were allowed to do.
There were a couple of units that had some combat orientation, and that was in the Marine artillery. And, for better or worse, my father was assigned to one of those units and went to the South Pacific, where most of the Marines were stationed, and he was on the Marshall Islands and Guam during his time overseas.
We should mention that Montford Point was the name of the training facility in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
That is absolutely correct. And it was separate and apart from any of the white training areas. It was all Black. Now, when I say "all Black," there were, of course, all white officers. There were no such things as Black officers in the Marine Corps back in those days.
We hear stories from families of veterans who say they didn't hear many stories about their wartime experiences. Many were too traumatized. Did your father talk about his experiences in the war?
It's interesting you ask that. And I guess his experience was common to others, white or Black, who would largely decline to talk in detail about their time in the service. With very few exceptions, my dad did not speak of his experience overseas.
What were his feelings about serving his country in the fight against fascism, yet a country that discriminated against people like him?
I'm sure he, like most other men of color — and it was largely men — he was aware of the disparity in his treatment at home and his treatment abroad.
One of the things that strikes me more than almost anything else — there were prisoners of war from Germany that were kept in camps in the South. What's interesting and really very sad, quite frankly, is those white soldiers, our sworn enemies, were treated better and afforded more access to things than our own Black military people. It's crazy. It sounds upside down, but that's what happened.
In 2011, then-President Barack Obama signed a law designating the Montford Point Marines as worthy of the honor of the Congressional Gold Medal. Why, in your estimation, did it take so long to recognize their achievements before then — and since then?
As I understand it, before then, it's just a process that was very slow. Not everybody politically would take that up. It would take a leader, such as Barack Obama, a fair amount of courage to bring that issue forward. And he did do that. And it was made available to those Marines who served honorably in World War II who were of color and to recognize the value of their service, but also to thank them for all that they sacrificed on behalf of the country, which in many instances didn't appreciate them or their efforts.
Why did it take so long, since 2011, to recognize, in this instance, my own father? He passed away several years before this award was put into being. And I heard about the award from a friend of mine who was a retired colonel of Marines, who happened to be an African American guy that I know pretty well. And I was telling him my father's experience in the Marine Corps, and he said, "Well, geez, they have this medal. We ought to see if your father is eligible for it."
This was just a couple of years ago, and within four months, this colonel was able to get my father qualified for it. And that's why it took a while. But once he was found to be eligible, they were prepared to make the award.
How do you think your father would feel about this honor?
That's a good question. And haven't given it a lot of thought but remembering my dad as a very proud man, very hard-working guy, cared an awful lot about the community he lived in, which is Springfield — I think he would very much appreciate the recognition.
You have accomplished so much in your public service career. You are the first Black U.S. attorney in any New England state. And your daughter, the first Black woman to lead Massachusetts' highest court. What would those milestones mean for your father?
Oh, he would love it. He would love it, yeah. He would be so proud of Kim, my daughter Kim, and what she has accomplished. Because, as you have mentioned, my father was in law enforcement, police work. So he would be in the courts testifying and all that sort of thing. And to know the highest judge in the state was his granddaughter, he would be very happy with that. Very, very pleased, very proud.
