“The Corps only reluctantly began accepting African Americans early in World War II…. The commanding officer of the black training facilities at Camp Lejeune was Colonel Samuel A. Woods Jr., a native of South Carolina and an alumnus of that state’s all-white military college, The Citadel.
“According to an official history of black Marines, Colonel Woods ‘cultivated a paternalistic relationship with his men,’ who dubbed him the ‘Great White Father.’ One imagines that this was said with different inflection around the colonel and in the barracks.”
— From “I Am a Man!” by Steve Estes (2005)
Samuel Woods is my great-grandfather on my father’s side. I am honored to be a part of history.