By Don Valentine
Over 40 years after the Civil War, New York resisted enlisting Blacks into the National Guard. Preparation for the U.S. entry into WW1 created an exigency for soldiers. That, combined with years of lobbying from civic leaders in Harlem, got Governor Charles Whitman to finally form a Black unit. They were first known as the 15th New York National Guard Regiment, and started service in 1916. In 1917 when the Guard went to war, so did the 15th. They were stationed for training in the Jim Crow hotbed of Spartanburg, South Carolina. The residents were disgusted with the Black soldiers and made sure their racial contempt was not hidden
Army historians (army.mil.com) recorded, “In order to get his men out of South Carolina, the White commander, Col. William Hayward pushed for his unit to go to France as soon as possible. In December 1917, well before most American soldiers, the Harlem Hellfighters arrived in France.” Concisely, the French needed soldiers and our Army did not care about losing Black men. The 15th New York, now renamed the 369th Infantry, became the solution for both armies.
The BlackPast.org details, “The U.S. Army’s 369th Infantry Regiment, popularly known as the ‘Harlem Hellfighters,’ was the best known African American unit of World War I.” In an interview with N.P.R. Max Brooks, the author of The Harlem Hellfighters said, “The French called them the ‘Men of Bronze’ out of respect, and the Germans called them the ‘Harlem Hellfighters’ out of fear,…’” History chronicles the heroism of our troops’ entry into the war by the courage of Private Henry Johnson. Smithsonian Magazine recorded one of his acts that earned him the French medal of valor: “He heard a sound and turned to his partner in their tiny observation post, Needham Roberts, who gestured toward the direction of the noise. They heard it again: the snip of barbed wire being cut. Johnson fired an illumination rocket into the sky, then ducked as German grenades flew toward him… Reviewing the carnage the next day, a U.S. Army captain estimated that Johnson had killed four of at least 24 German soldiers. Days later, Johnson and Roberts became the first Americans to receive the French Croix de Guerre – the first of many honors awarded to the 369th…”
Their exploits were recognized when they returned home to a gallant hero’s welcome. For that afternoon the color of the 369th skin was overshadowed by their fierce performance in battle. The parade was chronicled in army.mil.com, “People crammed themselves onto the sidewalk and into the windows of the buildings along the route to see their Soldiers come home… ‘Thousands and thousands of rattlesnakes, the emblem of the 369th, each snake coiled, ready to strike, appeared everywhere, in buttonholes, in shop windows and on banners carried by the crowd,’ the New York Times reported.”
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