United States Marine Corps Officer. He was the first African-American to receive an officer’s commission in the United States Marine Corps. Drafted in May of 1943, he and other African-American wartime marines were trained at Montford Point, North Carolina after President Franklin D. Roosevelt ended the whites-only restriction in that branch in 1941. His first application for Officers Candidate School was denied, but while serving in the South Pacific, he impressed his commanding officer enough to earn his recommendation. One of only 20,000 black Marines to serve in World War II, Branch earned his 2nd Lieutenant's bars as the first Marine African-American officer on November 10, 1945. After World War II, he went into the Marine Corps Reserves, was reactivated during the Korean War and was sent to Camp Pendleton, California as a training officer. Discharged in 1952, he remained in the Reserves, was promoted to Captain and resigned in 1955. He completed a degree in physics at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. and established a science department at Philadelphia's Dobbins High School, where he taught until his retirement in 1988. The Marine Corps honored him as a pioneer in integration by naming a training building for him at Marine Officers Candidate School at Quantico, Virginia in 1997. In 2004, he was honored at the 95th annual convention of the NAACP in Philadelphia.
United States Marine Corps Officer. He was the first African-American to receive an officer’s commission in the United States Marine Corps. Drafted in May of 1943, he and other African-American wartime marines were trained at Montford Point, North Carolina after President Franklin D. Roosevelt ended the whites-only restriction in that branch in 1941. His first application for Officers Candidate School was denied, but while serving in the South Pacific, he impressed his commanding officer enough to earn his recommendation. One of only 20,000 black Marines to serve in World War II, Branch earned his 2nd Lieutenant's bars as the first Marine African-American officer on November 10, 1945. After World War II, he went into the Marine Corps Reserves, was reactivated during the Korean War and was sent to Camp Pendleton, California as a training officer. Discharged in 1952, he remained in the Reserves, was promoted to Captain and resigned in 1955. He completed a degree in physics at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. and established a science department at Philadelphia's Dobbins High School, where he taught until his retirement in 1988. The Marine Corps honored him as a pioneer in integration by naming a training building for him at Marine Officers Candidate School at Quantico, Virginia in 1997. In 2004, he was honored at the 95th annual convention of the NAACP in Philadelphia.
Bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith
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