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Harlem Hellfighter’s Descendents Seek Medal for Hero
Final push may secure Medal of Honor for wwi combatant Sgt. Henry Lincoln Johnson
Shockley also lists equipment left behind by the raiding
party, presumably because when they retreated they were
carrying fallen soldiers.
“We believe these new original documents along with a
mountain of supporting documents provide the written
chain of command endorsements and eyewitness testi-
monies required to overcome the previously stated ‘techni-
cal’ grounds and now overwhelmingly meets the Army’s
standards to award the Medal of Honor,” said Wyden’s
office this week.
If Sec. McHugh approves the honor, he will forward the
request to the Secretary of Defense. If Sec. Robert Gates
approves it (or Sec. Leon Panetta if Gates leaves before it
reaches him), the request will move on to the Joint Chiefs
of Staff and then to Congress.
“We’re still hesitant because even after finding all this
information … it may not be enough,” Tara Johnson,
Johnson’s granddaughter, told Veterans of Foreign Wars
radio on April 30. “That’s the reality so we just have to wait
and see how that will unfold.”
The bid comes after a renewed campaign to honor
Johnson, passed over for decades because he was Black.
By helen Silvis
of The Skanner News
N
inety-three years ago, on a World War I battlefield in
France, a young Black soldier became a legend.
Now new evidence may bring official recognition
for Sgt. Henry Lincoln Johnson’s heroism with America’s
highest military award, The Medal of Honor.
Sources close to the campaign say Sens. Charles Schumer
and Ron Wyden will submit a packet containing that evi-
dence to Army Sec. John McHugh, possibly as soon as
Friday, May 13.
“I didn’t know that. This is very exciting,” said Sgt.
Johnson’s grandson, Herman Johnson. “I would just love to
see this happen for my grandfather, and for my uncle,
Herman Johnson. It breaks my heart that my uncle passed
away in his eighties without seeing his father awarded the
medal he rightly deserved.”
So what happened that night in 1918? On guard duty in
the dark of night, Sgt. Johnson and Pvt. Neadom Roberts
were attacked on two flanks by a German raiding party esti-
mated to be 20-strong. Both men fought bravely, but
Johnson displayed exceptional courage. Fighting on with
his bolo knife, even after his rifle jammed and he had sus-
tained several wounds, he repelled the attack and rescued
Roberts, who was being dragged off as a prisoner.
“President Teddy Roosevelt called him ‘one of the five
bravest men who fought in World War I,’” Portland City
Commissioner Nick Fish wrote May 9, in a letter urging
Oregon’s entire Congressional Delegation to support the
request. “Because he served with a French unit, under
French flag, during a time of segregation in our armed
forces, he has been unjustly denied this country’s highest
military honor.”
Commissioner Fish has a personal interest in the story. He
heard all about Johnson from his grandfather Hamilton
Fish, who served with the 369th regiment, better known as
the Harlem Hellfighters.
an impartial account confirms Story
The new evidence adds weight to the official regimental
account, written by Major Arthur W. Little. Schumer’s staff
recently unearthed a letter to Johnson’s wife from his com-
manding officer Col. William Hayward, which was read
into the Congressional Record in 1918; a field memo from
Gen. John Pershing; and a first-person account by
Johnson’s comrade, Roberts.
NYU professor Jeff Sammons Ph.D. made an additional
The Germans, doubtless
thinking it was a host instead of
two brave colored boys,
picked up their dead and
wounded and slunk away
exciting discovery in the National Archives: an account by
a visiting officer, Lt. Col. M. A. W. Shockley, who is con-
sidered an impartial observer.
Shockley’s account confirms important details about the
attack. He records that the position was a difficult one, that
the two men were alone and unsupported, and that they
were attacked by a party of about 20 enemy soldiers.
A French officer told Shockley that he would, “deduce the
number as about twenty men including a ‘Sous officer,’ on
account of the fact that the wire cutters of the type found are
distributed in the proportion of one to each four men.”
The number of casualties was hard to confirm. Shockley’s
estimate of two casualties was “based upon the fact that one
of the caps found contained considerable blood, a shorn
lock of European hair, and a knife cut, and the evidence of
the grenade explosion, the blood, clothing and gauze frag-
ments.”
We honor the many
accomplishments of
African Americans.
During WWI, African Americans had to fight for the right
to serve their country, as well as fight for it. As a result the
Harlem Hellfighters, and other Black regiments, fought
under French command. Sgt. Johnson was the first
American soldier to be awarded France’s highest military
honor, the Croix de Guerre with Gold Palm.
“I asked them, ‘Why can’t you just use the citation that
the French gave him’,” Herman Johnson told The Skanner
News. “But they told me that the records were lost in a fire,
and to go forward we need additional information. I think
the government should have done more. I told them I’m not
going to give up, but after not hearing from anyone you just
start to lose hope. This should be more than enough proof.”
Recognition came late
The army used Sgt. Johnson’s image to recruit African
Americans and promote war bonds. A highway in Johnson’s
hometown, Albany, NY, was named after him, and his stat-
ue was enshrined at the state Capitol. America finally rec-
ognized Johnson’s heroism with a purple heart in 1996. In
2002, campaigners asked that that Sgt. Johnson be awarded
the Medal of Honor.
However, the Army refused on ‘technical grounds,’ say-
ing that the required supporting evidence was missing.
Instead, in 2003 President George Bush presented
Johnson’s son, Tuskegee airman Herman Johnson, with the
Distinguished Service Cross.
Now Johnson’s grandchildren, Tara Johnson and Herman
Johnson keep up the fight supported by campaigners
including: Vietnam veteran John Howe, former US Reps.
Mickey Leland and Joe DioGuardi, and more recently
Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish, Sen. Ron Wyden
and Sen. Charles Schumer.
Schumer’s staff quickly discovered the three new signifi-
cant proofs of Johnson’s heroism.
Gen. Pershing described the events in his field memo:
“Attention drawn to fact that the 2 colored sentries first
attacked continued fighting after receiving wounds, and
despite of use of grenades by superior force, and should be
given credit for preventing by their bravery the taking pris-
oner of our men. Three of our men wounded, of whom two
by grenades but all are recovering…”
Col. Hayward’s account, read into the Congressional
Record, said, "Henry laid about him right and left with his
heavy knife, and Roberts, released from the grasp of the
scoundrels, began again throwing hand grenades and
exploding them in their midst... The Germans, doubtless
thinking it was a host instead of two brave colored boys
fighting like tigers at bay, picked up their dead and wound-
ed and slunk away."
president Recently Recognized two korean war
heroes
See honoR on page 8
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