Members of the Cherry Point chapter of the Montford Point Marines Association observe a ceremony at the at the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point Theater Friday, commemorating the Montford Point Marines, the first blacks allowed into the Marine Corps. From 1798 to 1942, the Marine Corps practiced a discriminatory policy, not allowing African Americans into their ranks, making them the last of all the military branches to finally do so. The policy wasn’t changed until more than two decades after they began allowing women to join their elite ranks.