b'Goodbye Confederate General,Hello Black Medal of Honor Recipientfrom BlackMansStreet.today ranks and "fight for your country"He was part of a segregated, all-and then for your rights. Black New York unit in the National Guard15thInfantryRegiment, Over 700,000 Black men enlisted F ortPolk,whichwasnamedonthefirstdayofthedraftforbased in Harlem. the369th afterLt.Gen.LeonidasPolk,aWorld War I but were subjected toItwaspredesignatedAfter retrieving Confederate commander who want- discriminatory terms, which includ- Infantryandbecamepartofthe ed Black people to remain enslaved,ed just serving Whites. 185thInfantryBrigade.Afterthethe Germans has now been renamed Fort WilliamTo get support for World War I injoiningoftheforces,thesoldiers HenryJohnson.JohnsonwasatheSouth,someU.S.Armybaseswere shipped to France. They weregrenades, Johnson Black man and a World War I Medalwere named after Confederate offi- known as the Harlem Hellfighters.of Honor recipient. cersasasignofreconciliationThe United States refused to havethen attacked the ButJohnsonoftenwonderedforbetween the North and the South,BlackandWhitesoldiersfighting whom he was fighting since Blackaccordingtoanarticlefromthealongside each other, and they wereremaining troops and men were called \'niggers,\' \'colored,\'Department of Defense. forced to change their uniforms in \'Negroes,\'andfinally,\'Blacks.\'It was also the height of the JimordertofightwiththeFrench.Asrescued Roberts.SargentJohnsonalsoknewBlackCrowLawsintheSouth,sothereFrance was severely lacking soldiers menwereconsideredsecond-classwasnoconsiderationforthefeel- to fight in the trenches, the govern-citizensintheUnitedStatesevenings of African Americans who hadment persuaded the United States though many of them fought hardto serve at bases named after mento requisition some of their troops.overseas. who fought to defend slavery, theTheFrenchArmyassigned Johnsonalsomayhavebeenarticle said. JohnsonsregimenttoOutpost20outonesoldierwithhisrifleand influenced as other Black men wereon the edge of the Argonne Forest instabbed two others. by W.E.B. Du Bois, one the found- Willam Henry Johnsom Frances Champagne region. AfterretrievingtheGermans ers of the Niagara Movement whichJohnson joined the Army on JuneThe soldiers wore French helmetsgrenades,Johnsonthenattacked laterbecametheNAACP,toclose4, 1917. andtheywerearmedwithFrenchtheremainingtroopsandrescued rifles. Roberts.WhileonobservationpoststheThepairmanagedtokillfour nightofMay14,1918,Blacksol- enemy soldiers and injure 28 oth-diers came under attack by a largeers.German raiding party. Johnson\'sandRobert\'sactsof Johnsonandfellowsoldiervalor led General John Pershing to NeedhamRobertssuddenlycamepraise the bravery and devotion of underfirefromsome20Germantwo soldiers of color, in a report.soldiers armed with rifles and gre- The Saturday Evening Post pub-nades. lishedanarticlewrittenbyIrvin JohnsonandRobertswerebothS.CobbtitledYoungBlackJoe hit but managed to return fire andwhichwaspublishedAugust24, injure several enemy soldiers. 1918 in the magazine.Roberts was lying on the groundJohnsonreturnedhomeinvic-and was in the process of being cap- tory with his regiment. The Harlem tured when Johnson, finding him- HellfightersmarcheddownNew selfoutofammunition,knockedYork Citys 5th Avenue.COLORADO SPRINGSBODY OF CHRIST NEWS AUGUST 2023 follow us onfacebook 13'