Biography
Corporal Clarence Capers Jr., 21, of Edgewater Park, New Jersey, was one of the Camp Pendleton 14, Black Marines arrested after confronting what they believed was a Ku Klux Klan meeting on November 13, 1976. A contemporary defense flyer identifies him in a group photograph as C. Capers. Associated Press coverage identifies his full name, age, hometown, charges, and general court-martial. He was later convicted of assault and conspiracy, fined $650, and reduced to lance corporal.
Photo: Pendleton 14 Defense Committee, reproduced by John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (1977), Freedom Archives, page 19. Original-image crop; identified by the source (Clarence Capers, rightmost). Source: https://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC37_scans/37.SmashKlanPressPkt1977.pdf.pdf . Non-free image used at low resolution under this site's educational/memorial fair-use rationale; not an open-license or permission claim.
The February 22, 1977 Associated Press report identifies Capers and Lance Corporal Ricky C. McGilvery as the first Black Marines scheduled to face general courts-martial that day. It describes a possible twenty-one-year maximum if convicted, not an imposed sentence or actual time served. Its statement that eight Black defendants had been released from the brig the preceding week after three months is collective and does not individually identify those eight; no exact personal discharge date follows from it. Source: https://archive.newportbeachlibrary.org/NBPL/0/edoc/1233760/1977-02-22%20-%20Orange%20Coast%20Pilot.pdf#page=3
