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Posts tagged as “Harlem Hellfighters”

Obama To Posthumously Award “Harlem Hellfighter” Henry Johnson With Medal Of Honor For Heroism

By goodblacknews on May 15, 2015

Harlem Hellfighter Henry Johnson
Harlem Hellfighter Henry Johnson

A member of the best-known African-American unit of World War I, popularly known as the “Harlem Hellfighters,” is scheduled to receive a posthumous Medal of Honor on Friday from President Barack Obama for heroism during combat.
The Medal of Honor will be bestowed upon Private Henry Johnson for his actions while serving as a member of Company C, 369th Infantry Regiment, 93rd Division, American Expeditionary Forces, according to a White House news release.
Command Sergeant Major Louis Wilson, New York National Guard, will join the president at the White House to accept the Medal of Honor on Private Johnson’s behalf. Army Sgt. William Shemin, who was Jewish and from the Bronx, NYC, is also scheduled to be honored for rushing three times across a battlefield to pull wounded comrades to safety in August 1918.
Nearly 100 years ago, then-Private Johnson, a train station porter from Albany, distinguished himself during combat near the Tourbe and Aisne Rivers, northwest of Saint Menehoul, France, on May 15, 1918.
From the White House:

While on night sentry duty on May 15, 1918, Private Johnson and a fellow Soldier received a surprise attack by a German raiding party consisting of at least 12 soldiers.
While under intense enemy fire and despite receiving significant wounds, Johnson mounted a brave retaliation resulting in several enemy casualties. When his fellow soldier was badly wounded, Private Johnson prevented him from being taken prisoner by German forces. 
Private Johnson [put] himself [in] grave danger by advancing from his position to engage an enemy soldier in hand-to-hand combat. Displaying great courage, Private Johnson held back the enemy force until they retreated.

The “Harlem Hellfighters” were a group of brothers serving as U.S. soldiers amid intense racism. “The French called them the Men of Bronze out of respect, and the Germans called them the Harlem Hellfighters out of fear,”according to NPR.
From BlackPast:

Dubbing themselves “Men of Bronze,” the soldiers of the 369th were lucky in many ways compared to other African American military units in France in 1918.  They enjoyed a continuity of leadership, commanded throughout the war by one of their original organizers and proponents, Colonel William Hayward.  Unlike many white officers serving in the black regiments, Colonel Hayward respected his troops, dedicated himself to their well-being, and leveraged his political connections to secure support from New Yorkers.  Whereas African American valor usually went unrecognized, well over one hundred members of the regiment received American and/or French medals, including the first two Americans – Corporal Henry Johnson and Private Needham Roberts – to be awarded the coveted French Croix de Guerre.
 Spending over six months in combat, perhaps the longest of any American unit in the war, the 369th suffered approximately fifteen hundred casualties but received only nine hundred replacements.  Unit histories claimed they were the first unit to cross the Rhine into Germany; they performed well at Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood, earning the epithet “Hell Fighters” from their enemies.  Nevertheless, the poor replacement system coupled with no respite from the line took its toll, leaving the unit exhausted by the armistice in November. Although the 369th could boast of a fine combat record and a regimental Croix de Guerre, the unit was plagued by acute discipline problems resulting from disproportionate casualties among the unit’s longest-serving members and related failures to assimilate new soldiers. After considerable effort by Colonel Hayward, the 369th was welcomed home with a parade in February 1919 and reabsorbed into the National Guard.

Congratulations, Private Johnson, and thanks to President Obama for recognizing a brave solider.
article by Lynette Holloway via newsone.com

General Nathaniel James, 79, Dedicates Life to Raising Profile of WWI Heroes, The Harlem Hellfighters

By goodblacknews on October 3, 2014
Maj. Gen. Nathaniel James in front of a mural dedicated to the 369th Regiment. To General James, who joined the New York Army National Guard at 17, his most important job has been promoting the Harlem Hellfighters. (OZIER MUHAMMAD / THE NEW YORK TIMES)

By the beginning of September, the corner office on the second floor of the 369th Regiment Armory in Harlem was nearly empty. Squares of dust outlined where framed pictures once hung. Only a desk remained, with Maj. Gen. Nathaniel James, 79, sitting behind it.

General James has considered the armory at 142nd Street and Fifth Avenue his second home for more than 60 years.  Before he retired, his military career in the New York Army National Guard had spanned from private, corporal, second lieutenant, first lieutenant, major and lieutenant colonel. To him, though, his most important job had been as president of the Harlem Hellfighters Historical Society.
Now, the armory, built in 1933, is being closed for renovations. Its occupants have had to find temporary space elsewhere. General James and everything belonging to the historical society had to be out by Wednesday.
In 1959, General James learned about a room in the armory where artifacts of the Harlem Hellfighters — a black unit that fought under French command in World War I — were gathering dust. He put the items on display every New Year’s Day for a few hours.
“We cleaned everything and had an open house for everybody in the unit,” he said.  “When I joined there was no written history,” said General James, who joined the New York Army National Guard when he was 17.
General James’s family moved north in 1939, fleeing racism in Branchville, S.C., where he was born.  “My family moved to Harlem and we’ve never left,” General James said. He married and had four children, who called him General instead of Dad.
“We got up in the mornings to work out with him, and we made sure we got up early enough to get to school on time,” said one of his sons, Nathaniel James Jr., 52. “O dark thirty is O dark thirty, no exceptions,” he added.
General James decided that the Hellfighters artifacts should be more widely seen, and the history of black soldiers should be more widely known, after watching a biographical movie about Gen. George S. Patton, which, he noticed, made no mention of a black unit that he knew had been under Patton’s command.
And his children, he said, were noticing gaps in what they were taught at school. “They started seeing history wasn’t proper,” he said.
Mr. James remembers looking in his history books for the stories of the black soldiers his father had told him about. He could not find much.  “I asked my teacher about it, and she said the only history they have is about the Buffalo Soldiers,” he said.
Members of the James family decided to take matters into their own hands.  General James’s sons held parties in the mess hall and in the auditorium of the armory, taking donations. The general’s wife, Mary, and his daughter, Rosalyn, organized dinners, fashion shows and Mother’s Day events.  “We used to D.J. when they had parties here,” said Courtney Dixon, 52, a neighbor.