Biography
Corporal Curtis Jones Jr. was one of the "Camp Pendleton 14," a group of Black Marines court-martialed after they confronted an active-duty Ku Klux Klan presence at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton on November 13, 1976 — raiding a barracks they believed was hosting a Klan meeting amid a wave of on-base cross-burnings and Klan literature. The Black Panther reported that Jones, charged with one count of conspiracy and six counts of aggravated assault, was the first of about ten Black Marines ordered before a court-martial board and was held in the brig in solitary for over eight months, while the white Klansmen were quietly transferred and never punished.
Black Marine corporal, one of the 'Camp Pendleton 14' court-martialed after defending themselves against Ku Klux Klan attacks at Camp Pendleton in 1976; sentenced to three months at hard labor, demoted and fined. The Black Panther Vol. 17 no.3 (1977).
Photo: Pendleton 14 Defense Committee, reproduced by John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (1977), Freedom Archives, page 19. Original-image crop; identified by the source (Curtis Jones, behind Herman Fletcher). 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.
