Biography
Herman Fletcher was a Black Marine sergeant and one of the Camp Pendleton 14, prosecuted after Black Marines confronted a barracks gathering they believed involved Ku Klux Klan members on November 13, 1976. A general court-martial convicted Fletcher of assault and conspiracy in October 1977. The military jury initially imposed five years at hard labor, forfeiture of pay, reduction in rank, and a bad-conduct discharge. Under a pretrial agreement, the confinement was limited to 60 days at hard labor, with reduction to private, a $530 forfeiture, and a bad-conduct discharge.
Photo: Pendleton 14 Defense Committee, reproduced by John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (1977), Freedom Archives, page 19. Original-image crop; identified by the source (Herman Fletcher, leftmost foreground). 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 report identifies Sergeant Herman Fletcher, twenty-three, of High Point, North Carolina, at a continuing preliminary hearing on Tuesday. His attorney and psychologist Charles W. Thomas linked the barracks confrontation to Klan activity and alleged official inaction. A hearing to decide court-martial referral is not a conviction or the start of his later actual served term.
