The Harlem Hell Fighters – World War I heroes
‘Harlem Hell Fighters’ on Black History Month
Dear Editor:
My wife teaches in an inner-city school. She teaches black, white, and Hispanics – both English and Spanish in the early grades, and high levels of math. I like the school, and I like many of the staff members, and have often done celebrity reads. In any event, a great African-American professor told me the story below, and he also gave me a library of books on my own ethnic background–being White, Irish, Italian, and having a background from Wales. Professor Hylan Lewis was indeed a great man, and a great read, and this is a story he told me and I have now again researched for Black History Month.
At the outbreak of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson from New Jersey, called for the enlistment of all able-bodied men–whether black or white. Soldiers were to be trained and sent to their Commander General “Black Jack” Pershing, who headed the American Expeditionary Force.
Due to pressure from home, Pershing largely assigned all black troops to the French Army. Think about that for a moment. Out of Harlem, a unit was created of such black troops called the 369th infantry, later to be called the “Harlem Hell Fighters.” A French general dubbed this now French Division, as the “Les Enfants Perdus” or the Lost Children in English, but the French general and the French people later would call this division heroes.
The brave unit was headed by Colonel William Hayward, a white reformer, who thought that this division would change the way of life for blacks after World War I. Of course that did not occur and would not occur until many years later. The division was, as noted above, ordered to be dressed in French uniforms and helmets, not an idea that Hayward and his black troops wanted. But soon many soldiers of the division distinguished themselves, including two listed in the next paragraph.
Two members of the 369th were on guard duty in a French trench facing the Germans on the night of May 14, 1918. Private Henry Johnson, a porter from Albany, and his already badly wounded Private Needham Roberts took on a German contingent entering the trench of the French Army. Private Henry Johnson single-handedly conducted hand-to-hand combat with many of the Germans, and killed some 24, and wounded many others. Both soldiers were severely wounded, and for their efforts Johnson and Roberts were the first American soldiers, white or black to receive the French Medal of Honor–the Croix de Guerre.
The 369th spent some 191 days at the front. In one encounter, the French general ordered a retreat; the 69th refused and turned the course of the battle. Civil Rights and an integrated Armed Forces did not come until years later, but though now largely forgotten, the “Harlem Hell Fighters” fought for liberty for the French, the English, and the United States in the great war that my grandfather took part in with our Merchant Marine and Navy.
Bill Weightman,
Hardyston