07/22/2026
Raymond Allen Murray Jr., one of the US Marines who broke color barrier in the service in WWII, passed away in 2022 at 99.
Raymond Murray Jr. was awarded the congressional gold medal for his World War II service with the Montford Point Marines. But, to the boxers he coached in Chicago, he was a hero for other reasons.
Raymond Murray and his fellow Marines fought at Okinawa, Saipan and Iwo Jima, “with such tenacity, valor and distinction that the commandant at the time was moved to declare” they “are no longer on trial. They are marines — period. Their actions reflected the finest attributes of the ‘leatherneck’ fighting spirit and blazed the trail for generations in the Marine Corps.”
“They fought gallantly,” Averhart said. “This is not just Black history. It is not just Marine Corps history. It is American history.”
Mr. Murray boxed in the service and won a featherweight title in a Yokohama, Japan, competition among troops serving in the Pacific theater, according to his family. Mr. Murray once gave boxing lessons to hockey star Al Secord when Secord was playing for the Blackhawks. “I thought I wasn’t doing very well with my fights in the NHL, and I needed a tune-up, and he got me back on track,’’ said Secord. Even though Mr. Murray was in his 60s when they met, Secord said, “You knew not to mess with him just in the way he carried himself.”
Secord remembers Mr. Murray bringing him to Chicago’s Montford Point Marine Association, where he said, “I had a great time, and some of the ladies were teaching me to dance.” Mr. Murray liked to dress up every day because he wanted to be ready for whoever he might meet.
Raymond Murray was buried in his Marine dress blues, according to his wife and his stepdaughter LaDonna Bonner.
