Honoring Black military service members

During the America 250: Black Edition event on July 9, 2026, at the Howard Academy Community Center and Black History Museum of Marion County, Jo Ann McCants looked over photos of her family members and others during their military service on the “Honor Wall,” which will remain on display for an indefinite period. [Photo by Andy Fillmore/Ocala Gazette]

A celebrate America 250: Black Edition event on July 9 at the Howard Academy Community Center and Black History Museum of Marion County honored the history and continuing service of Black members of America’s Armed Forces. The theme of the event was “Celebrating 250 years of faith, hope and resilience.”

A centerpiece of the event was an “Honor Wall” that covered part of a wall in the museum. The display is made up of perhaps 100 recently accumulated photos requested by museum volunteers and submitted by local families. The images of family members, mostly in uniform, in some cases represented generations of military service.

Jo Ann McCants and Aldjenatu Florence both submitted dozens of family photos covering decades of military service. 

“(They were) proud to serve,” Florence said.

Photos of Simon Ponder of Ocala, a Vietnam War era U.S. Navy veteran, and several of his family members, were on display. Sean Ponder, Simon’s son, a retired Navy commander, served as engineer on a nuclear submarine; Simon’s father, John Ponder, a Korean War veteran; and Simon’s father-in-law, Navy veteran of World War II, Lucius Falana; were pictured in photos on display.

The event was a joint effort by HACC staff, Friends of Marion County Black Museum and museum volunteers, according to Cynthia Wilson-Graham, lead museum volunteer coordinator.  

The event featured displays on famous Black veterans, including four Tuskegee Airmen with ties to Marion County who flew P-51 fighters in World War II—Hal King, Gilbert Langford, Robert Walker and Charles Bailey, a graduate of Howard Academy. 

One display gave information about Clinton Burns of Dunnellon, who served in the U.S. Army 364th Combat Engineers and participated in the invasion at Normandy in World War II. Burns passed away on March 18, 2025, at the age of 103.

Tribute was paid at the event to Vietnam War veterans like Sam Scriven of Ocala, who died in combat in 1967, and Army veteran and Ocala native James Brigham, who spent 111 days in prisoner of war captivity during the Vietnam War.

Army Col. Gorham Black, retired, a Marion County resident, was recognized on a display at the event. Black wrote about the experience of African Americans service members in an email.

“We Black Americans have served in every U.S. war, often fighting for freedoms we were too often denied. The plight of Black Americans serving in the United States Armed Forces has been defined by courage in the face of discrimination, segregation, unequal treatment and limited opportunity—yet all of us have repeatedly proven to be indispensable to the nation’s defense,” Black wrote in part. (Read the full text here: OPINION | Ocala Gazette)

The Ocala-Marion County Veterans Memorial Park has two plaques honoring Black service members.

The Friends of Marion County Veterans Park have records of a plaque installed in the park honoring the Tuskegee Airmen, a unit of 1,000 African American airmen who flew 1,500 sorties and earned 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses from 1941 to 1946, according to the inscription, and a plaque recognizing the drivers of the Red Ball Express—whose trucks were marked with an identifying red ball—supply convoy in Europe in World War II, which carried 12,500 tons daily of supplies with “almost 75 percent” of the drivers African American, according to the plaque. 

The keynote talk of the evening was by Bruce Seaman, author of the book “To Succeed Where Others Failed: The Untold Story of the Marshall Plantation Raid,” about a Civil War operation undertaken by black Union soldiers to free scouts and slaves from a plantation in northeast Marion County during the Civil War.

Seaman has found much of the history had been lost but then “Ocala Star-Banner” reporter Rick Allen uncovered a lot of historical information about the raid when he was researching a missing historical marker about the operation. 

“Seventy-five percent of Marion County residents don’t know this story,” Seaman said.

The raid was led by a Black sergeant major at a time when units of Black soldiers who had been permitted to enlist by the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 were typically led by white officers.

Groups represented at the event included American Legion Thompson-McKay Post 210, Veterans of Foreign Wars  Brady Owens Post 7193 and the Marion County Library System, represented by Taylor Benson and Mark Sloan

Raymond Whyte, Rachael Drayton, Cherrietta Prince and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Jack Kiner and his wife, Kathy Kiner, represented historically Black Post 7193. Jack Kiner is a member of the Marion County Memorial Honor Guard, which posted the colors at the event. 

A Nov. 24, 2013, “Star-Banner” article covered the history of Post 7193, including that the namesakes were World War II veterans John A. Owens and Louis “Snap” Brady, both of Marion County. Both were Black and both died in the war. The article contains narratives from Black veterans connected with Post 7183 who served the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s and felt unwelcome at veterans’ organizations locally and nationally. The start of Post 7193 was likely a reaction to the unwelcome atmosphere at other veterans’ organizations during the times. The article states that Post 7193 welcomes all veterans. 

Local veterans Wilbur Julius and James Curley have served as Vice Commander and Post Commander, respectively, at Post 7193.

Edmond Fordham, who passed away in 2022, was a longtime Marion County educator, school administrator and namesake of Fordham Early Learning Center. He began a connection with Post 7193 in 1958, according to the article. Fordham served in the military before and after the 1948 executive order to end segregation.

Davida Randolph, HACC program manager, spoke to the assembly. She talked about members of the “older generation (who) sacrificed freedom” for the younger generation.

Candace Shelton served as moderator for the event.

To learn more, go to marionschools.net/departments/grants_federal_programs/howard_academy_community_center and fb.com/people/Friends-of-Marion-County-Black-History-Museum/61582691195796/