Speaker 1: And now moved my mic back.
Speaker 2: You're like that.
Speaker 3: Strike waters from headquarters behind him.
Speaker 1: And if you're just tuning into Civic Sipher, I'm your host,
Speaker 1: ramses Jah.
Speaker 2: I go by the name q ward List.
Speaker 1: Indeed, we should to stick around. We got a lot
Speaker 1: more to talk about. Not the least of rich is
Speaker 1: body camera footage that we had to review comes from
Speaker 1: Fort Lauderdale, and we were talking about a hotel clerk
Speaker 1: who was arrested after calling the police on one of
Speaker 1: his guests. We're also going to talk about the Harlem
Speaker 1: hell Fighters for our way Black History fact and first
Speaker 1: we are going to talk about how to become a
Speaker 1: better ally. And so sometimes we get to say some
Speaker 1: cool stuff and this is one of those times. So
Speaker 1: I'm happy to say this. On this show, we've you know,
Speaker 1: people ask us all the time, how do we support
Speaker 1: what you're doing? How do we support our African American
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters? How do we do this sort of stuff?
Speaker 1: On this show, we've mentioned the NAACP and their efforts
Speaker 1: recent efforts to combat the voter suppression initiatives across the country.
Speaker 1: Well got an email today says thanks to the support
Speaker 1: of our incredible NAACP network. Florida's unconstitutional and racially motivated
Speaker 1: election law changes have been struck down, and that's not
Speaker 1: all and a win for the Voting Rights Act. Florida
Speaker 1: is now barred for making any changes to its election
Speaker 1: law for the next decade without federal approval, in order
Speaker 1: to stop future attempts to silence black voters. That has
Speaker 1: a lot to do with people like you, people listening
Speaker 1: to the show, people making donations. You know, if you
Speaker 1: can't get out there, knock on doors, if the conversations
Speaker 1: don't come your way, and you can't change the minds
Speaker 1: of the people in your social circle and your family,
Speaker 1: maybe you can make a donation. And you know, money
Speaker 1: makes the world go round, you know, And the truth
Speaker 1: is you might have a lot more fiscal resources than
Speaker 1: your African American brothers and sisters. And so that's one
Speaker 1: way that we always suggest that you can help that
Speaker 1: is meaningful, it's impactful. I do want to mention while
Speaker 1: we're here for this show, you can become a Patreon.
Speaker 1: You can donate through our websites off excipher dot com.
Speaker 1: We have been growing as well, and it's largely due
Speaker 1: to the fiscal support of our listenership, but just you
Speaker 1: tuning in, listening sharing the content that goes a long
Speaker 1: way too. We do want to mention this. If you
Speaker 1: want to continue to support the NAACP, they're taking on
Speaker 1: niches in Alabama and other places as well. Visit NAACP
Speaker 1: dot org, slash donate and make a donation. Now let's
Speaker 1: talk about this video. This comes from the Grio. Body
Speaker 1: camera footage recently released by the Fort Lauderdale Police Department
Speaker 1: shows officers pushing a hotel employee who called them for
Speaker 1: help after a customer attacked him. According to a video
Speaker 1: report from NBC News, the incident occurred in January at
Speaker 1: a Best Western Plus hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In
Speaker 1: the video of it has gone viral after being shared
Speaker 1: by civil rights attorney ben Jamin Crump. Quote, hotel employee
Speaker 1: Raymond Raschal tried to exercise his right to cancel a
Speaker 1: white hotel guest stay for spewing racial slurs at him,
Speaker 1: but Fort Lauderdale police officers allowed the man to stay,
Speaker 1: and Raschal was attacked arrested in charge for defending himself,
Speaker 1: Crump wrote. Crump's tweet contradicts police records, as NBC reported
Speaker 1: the white alleged assailant, Jason Rabe, did not stay in
Speaker 1: the hotel. The incident, captured by security cameras and police
Speaker 1: body cams, involved two separate leducations, and the first conference tation,
Speaker 1: police officers forced Rabe to leave the hotel. WSBN previously reported. However,
Speaker 1: the report also notes that Rabe, who is white and
Speaker 1: who instigated the altercation, was visibly drunk. He was charged
Speaker 1: with trespassing and giving a given a courtesy ride to
Speaker 1: a friend's house. NBC reported. In the second confrontation, police
Speaker 1: shows Rachall sitting at a desk when Rube returns to
Speaker 1: the hotel after police have left, and he charges toward Rachelle.
Speaker 1: Raschall has heard saying that he has been attacked and
Speaker 1: he has to defend himself. The NBC report features excerpts
Speaker 1: from the police report where Fort Lauderdale police returned for
Speaker 1: the second time. In that footage, an officer is seen
Speaker 1: pushing Rachelle and arresting him, charging him with disorderly conduct
Speaker 1: and resisting an officer with violence. The charges were eventually
Speaker 1: dropped by the state attorney's office one month after the incident.
Speaker 1: According to WSBN News, now had to tell the full story.
Speaker 1: But Q sent me this video earlier this week, sent
Speaker 1: it to my inbox. Q said, we have to talk
Speaker 1: about this. We have to breathe life into the experience,
Speaker 1: the black experience in this country, and I agreed. You know,
Speaker 1: the show has grown in a lot of significant ways,
Speaker 1: and so we don't always get to do stories like this,
Speaker 1: but this one stood out, and I know why. But
Speaker 1: I will let Q explain why this one stood out,
Speaker 1: because this is kind of the origin story of this
Speaker 1: coming our way this week.
Speaker 2: Imagine driving down the street what would be considered a
Speaker 2: benign day. You just got off of work, stopped at
Speaker 2: the grocery store, you got some milk, and you turn
Speaker 2: out of the parking lot and onto a main street,
Speaker 2: and there's a cop car behind you. For some people,
Speaker 2: that just feels like driving home. For people that look
Speaker 2: like us, that is a terrifying experience in and of itself.
Speaker 2: We have to hope that we survive driving home from
Speaker 2: work with a cop car behind us, because we understand
Speaker 2: that stories like this are not isolated. Because we are
Speaker 2: the police, and because you look like you, if we
Speaker 2: feel like beating you up, you have to allow that
Speaker 2: because if you don't. We're going to charge you with
Speaker 2: resisting with violence for simply trying to protect yourself. If
Speaker 2: we pull you over and we want to conduct an
Speaker 2: unlawful search or seizure, you should probably let us do
Speaker 2: that too, because you don't want to make yourself our
Speaker 2: adversary just because we're annoyed or having a bad day.
Speaker 2: Because that's what they've said before, he was having a
Speaker 2: bad day. We really could just shoot you. And if
Speaker 2: we present to an attorney one representing the city, state
Speaker 2: of municipality that you live in, that we were scared
Speaker 2: for our lives even though you had no weapon, imposed us,
Speaker 2: no threat, they might not even see fit to press charges,
Speaker 2: let alone get a conviction. This young man, after he
Speaker 2: called the police, was then assaulted by the police and
Speaker 2: then charged for it. Now this should sound ridiculous if
Speaker 2: you're listening to this, and I think most people would
Speaker 2: like to think that instances like this are isolated and
Speaker 2: they're just a couple of bad apples, But rams is denied. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: by the nature of the job. We do have seen
Speaker 2: far more footage than we get to share.
Speaker 1: With you, and this is the recorded stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, most of the require more bad actors than everyone
Speaker 2: would like to admit. And when these bad actors make
Speaker 2: a mistake, and you have to understand how charitable we're
Speaker 2: being by calling all of these incidences of murder a mistake.
Speaker 2: We're being very charitable. You guys think it's coincidence that
Speaker 2: very large numbers of these victims whose families get no
Speaker 2: justice look like Ramses and I. And then we have
Speaker 2: to also believe that every time that that person really
Speaker 2: was trying to do the right thing and just slipped
Speaker 2: up and made a mistake, it is not by chance
Speaker 2: that these people are not convicted, that charges are not
Speaker 2: even pursued. That becomes the reality for people that look
Speaker 2: like us in a country that we love to be
Speaker 2: in that has proven over and over again that it
Speaker 2: does not love to have us here. And we have
Speaker 2: to still sing proud to be an American when it plays,
Speaker 2: and still stand for the anthem and still proclaim this
Speaker 2: country the greatest? How dare we question it?
Speaker 1: Be it not?
Speaker 2: Just go back to where you're from, except where six
Speaker 2: generations deep here not that far removed from most of
Speaker 2: you whose ancestors also came from somewhere else. So when
Speaker 2: you start down this rabbit hole of history and patterns
Speaker 2: that repeat themselves and that not have not, by any
Speaker 2: fracture of measurement, decreased much over the last hundred years.
Speaker 2: It is very, very difficult to sit in the position
Speaker 2: of Ramses, who is the eternal optimist and hopeful and
Speaker 2: it sees the best that this country is and can be,
Speaker 2: when sitting across the table from someone like myself who
Speaker 2: is just really exhausted with being disappointed by the same
Speaker 2: things over and over again. In this case, this young
Speaker 2: man didn't die, thank God, But imagine having to have
Speaker 2: zero dignity when faced with something that's just grossly unfair
Speaker 2: and obviously unfair to anyone who won't pretend that these
Speaker 2: things are random. You cannot have dignity or self respect.
Speaker 2: You cannot demand that your rights be upheld, and you
Speaker 2: have to hope.
Speaker 1: As I said.
Speaker 2: Before, even in the most benign situations, you forgot to
Speaker 2: put your blinker on before you change lanes, or someone
Speaker 2: assaulted you and you called the cops. When the cops arrived,
Speaker 2: you have to pray that you survive that interaction. You
Speaker 2: have to understand what that does to the the mental
Speaker 2: space of a person that has to live under that
Speaker 2: amount of pressure every day and in the event that
Speaker 2: the trained professional with the killing machine. Because Ramses says
Speaker 2: that all the time, he's not being dramatic, there is
Speaker 2: no other purpose for the weapon than to kill. Right,
Speaker 2: the nightstick or any type of baton could be used
Speaker 2: to subdue or just harm, or just cripple or just
Speaker 2: slow down a person. The gun is meant to kill.
Speaker 2: So the person that's licensed to carry and trained.
Speaker 4: He put air quotes when he said trained, is the
Speaker 4: person that gets to make the fatal mistake over and over.
Speaker 4: Because please get this, please have this in your mind correctly.
Speaker 4: If the cop shows up on the no knock warrant
Speaker 4: and the cops murder and not the person who sleep
Speaker 4: on the couch, that person's going.
Speaker 1: To jail under the jail cops don't get.
Speaker 2: Their justice right there on the spot. Yeah, and then
Speaker 2: not go to jail themselves because now they've proven their point.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: This is the pattern that people that look like me
Speaker 2: are forced to live inside of in the greatest country
Speaker 2: in the world.
Speaker 1: Now you might be listening to this and think, now,
Speaker 1: most like the police are not the biggest enemy of
Speaker 1: black people. There's other things. There's socioeconomic conditions, there's you know, whatever,
Speaker 1: whatever thing that you have in your brain as a
Speaker 1: much bigger issue for black people to tackle. And you know,
Speaker 1: I won't even say that you're wrong. You probably are,
Speaker 1: but I won't say it for this purpose, for our
Speaker 1: purposes right now. But I think the Q you bring
Speaker 1: up a great point because the psychological implications of knowing
Speaker 1: that there will be no justice, that these people can
Speaker 1: show up and even if you're the good guy, the
Speaker 1: person that called the police, they can still treat you
Speaker 1: like the bad guy. Like what that does to your psyche,
Speaker 1: to your self image or self concept of who you are?
Speaker 1: What prospects do you have? You know, am I worthy
Speaker 1: of growing? Developing? You know, you know those sorts of things.
Speaker 1: It's impossible to fully explain the impact that that has.
Speaker 1: You know, you went to school, and I went to school,
Speaker 1: and you know what, the teachers they love the students.
Speaker 1: Right now, Imagine if the teachers loved only some of
Speaker 1: the students and they treated the rest of the students back,
Speaker 1: what that would do to them psychologically. Now, let's swap
Speaker 1: out teachers, because you know, not too far away from there,
Speaker 1: when you learn what the fireman does and of course
Speaker 1: what the teacher does you learn what the police officer does. Right.
Speaker 1: So these are the people that you feel hold up
Speaker 1: a society.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: So when you see over and over again, I saw
Speaker 1: this since I was little. The police were the people
Speaker 1: stealing from the pockets of the people that they had
Speaker 1: in handcuffs. I saw it happen. They would take the
Speaker 1: money and then they would put it in their pockets.
Speaker 1: It didn't go in evidence bags anything like that. And
Speaker 1: once they took the money, they took the handcuffs off,
Speaker 1: and then they let them go. I saw it happen.
Speaker 1: That was stealing, right. And you can say, hey, as
Speaker 1: just those police officers in Compton, California makes sense. Not
Speaker 1: all police officers are like that. But the point I'm
Speaker 1: making is that we have seen, we have experienced these things.
Speaker 1: And imagine what it does to you psychologically to know that.
Speaker 1: Just me, you know, I'll I'm almost forty years old,
Speaker 1: I'm thirty nine years old. I saw this video of
Speaker 1: this man calling the police after subduing a drunk guy
Speaker 1: that came into his hotel as he was working. He
Speaker 1: was working, the guy walked in and he had to
Speaker 1: get up and defend himself and subdue the guy. Call
Speaker 1: the police. The police show up and put him in handcuffs. Right.
Speaker 1: We saw the video the other day, two kids fighting
Speaker 1: in the mall. The police set the white kid down
Speaker 1: on the bench, the big him up the black kid. Right,
Speaker 1: this is our reality, and so you say things like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, there are bigger challenges. There's you know, we
Speaker 1: really don't like that black on black crime narrative around here,
Speaker 1: because there are things that have a positive and a
Speaker 1: negative correlation with violent crimes around the country, you know,
Speaker 1: and most of the people live near people that look
Speaker 1: like them. So there is such a thing as white
Speaker 1: on white crime if you want to have that argument,
Speaker 1: But no one talks about it, no one sensationalizes it,
Speaker 1: because it's just a way that the media and politicians
Speaker 1: can shift the narrative away from what their real responsibilities
Speaker 1: are and try to put the responsibilities of the conditions
Speaker 1: that black people live in on themselves, and they don't
Speaker 1: take into account even governmental policies redlining. That's the precursor
Speaker 1: to a lot of things that happen in this country.
Speaker 1: You know, why crime rates might be hiring this neighborhood
Speaker 1: than that neighborhood, you know, and I know that might
Speaker 1: be some high level stuff. If you're just casually listening
Speaker 1: to the show, I employ you to look it up,
Speaker 1: you know, just google YouTube video on redlining. If you
Speaker 1: really want to do right by your African American and
Speaker 1: Native American and Hispanic brothers and sisters in this country,
Speaker 1: just google redlining and then start down that rabbit hole,
Speaker 1: because that's facts and they'll tell you what you need
Speaker 1: to know. Now, Public Enemy, it's so good that were
Speaker 1: on hip hop stations. Man, I love it because at
Speaker 1: least we can make some connection to our listenership that
Speaker 1: you know might land, you know, and to all the
Speaker 1: stations that aren't hip hop stations. If you're listening and
Speaker 1: hip hop's not your thing, you still appreciate you just
Speaker 1: to say you might even know who Public Enemy is.
Speaker 1: Public Enemy had a song came out when I was
Speaker 1: really little, So if you don't know about it, it's
Speaker 1: all good, but listen up or check it out. Rather
Speaker 1: it's called nine to one. One is a joke, right.
Speaker 1: NWA of course has a famous song called f the Police,
Speaker 1: and that song has been remade a bunch of times,
Speaker 1: and you know, basically there's a lot of there's a
Speaker 1: lot of hip hop artists that have expressed how the
Speaker 1: police look in our stories. Right. But the long and
Speaker 1: the short of it is, there is a culture in
Speaker 1: Black America where we especially when you come from like
Speaker 1: certain neighborhoods Detroit, Michigan, for instance, shout out to that
Speaker 1: motor one time, the three one three qore putting that
Speaker 1: sign up for y'all. And you know, I'm from Compton, California.
Speaker 1: You know, people from Chicago South Side, people from you know,
Speaker 1: Fort Lauderdale, people from Atlanta, the atl people from you know,
Speaker 1: places like this where we don't call the police for
Speaker 1: what so they can make it worse. Uh, one time recently,
Speaker 1: I'm going to share this story. One time recently in
Speaker 1: my life. This might have been I guess it wasn't
Speaker 1: real recent, but recent for me with respect to calling
Speaker 1: the police, we'll call it seven years ago, maybe a
Speaker 1: little more than that. I had to call the police.
Speaker 1: I had a situation with a person and she was
Speaker 1: very angry with me for no reason. She was just
Speaker 1: kind of having an episode. Nothing happened, nothing crazy. Still
Speaker 1: someone that I interact with on a regular basis, but
Speaker 1: in that moment, she was kind of making a big
Speaker 1: deal out of nothing, and't wasn't aware that it was
Speaker 1: nothing in that moment, I didn't even know what the
Speaker 1: problem was, you know, and she just kind of reacted physically, right,
Speaker 1: So I started getting hit and punched and you know,
Speaker 1: so forth, and this person ended up cutting my face.
Speaker 1: For those that see me, I wear a beard, pretty
Speaker 1: substantial beard. The result that this substantial beard is I
Speaker 1: had to have surgery on my face from this altercation.
Speaker 1: And as she's yelling and screaming. You know, I have neighbors.
Speaker 1: My neighbors know I'm black. Last thing I need. This
Speaker 1: is the way the world feels to me. You guys
Speaker 1: hear me every week, right, you know I'm not an
Speaker 1: awful person. I hope you think that, you know, But
Speaker 1: the reality is I have to be mindful of things
Speaker 1: that maybe you don't. Right. So, my neighbors, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know what they're afraid of. I don't know
Speaker 1: what prejudices or stereotypes they have, but I know if
Speaker 1: they hear a woman screaming in my house and things
Speaker 1: banging on the wall, that they might assume the worst.
Speaker 1: They might assume she's the one getting hurt and call
Speaker 1: the police, and the police show up, and then I
Speaker 1: don't have a leg to stand on because it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter because she could say anything, right, so I can
Speaker 1: read the play in the beginning, right. So as soon
Speaker 1: as I my face got cut up and then I
Speaker 1: started bleeding everywhere, I was like, well, it's probably time
Speaker 1: for me to leave, right, So I gathered up the
Speaker 1: things that I could gather that I was hoping she
Speaker 1: wouldn't destroy, some cash, you know, some jewelry that I had,
Speaker 1: and so for pocketed it all and left my own
Speaker 1: house that I pay the bills and left her here
Speaker 1: by herself. It's totally fine, you know, I needed to leave.
Speaker 1: I drove to a circle k. You know I live
Speaker 1: in Arizona. Circle k's are out here, so I drove
Speaker 1: to It's basically like a convenience store, gas station, corner
Speaker 1: store sort of thing for those that don't know. Drove
Speaker 1: to a circle K and called the police terrified, But
Speaker 1: I had a little bit of game, And what I
Speaker 1: did was I called nine to one one. I explained
Speaker 1: to them calmly what happened, right, I told them, I'm
Speaker 1: at this store, this circle K on the corner of
Speaker 1: this street and this other street. It's well lit. I'm
Speaker 1: in a black range rover, I'm wearing these clothes. I
Speaker 1: am the good guy, and I don't have any weapons,
Speaker 1: and you know, feel free to come and approach. And
Speaker 1: you know, they came and went off without incident. They
Speaker 1: took pictures and all this sort of stuff. And that
Speaker 1: was the reason why I needed to call them, is
Speaker 1: because I needed to make sure that I had enough
Speaker 1: evidence to prove that I was in fact injured and
Speaker 1: still actively bleeding, and that a different narrative couldn't get
Speaker 1: chronicled on the other side of that. But imagine those steps.
Speaker 1: I can't call from my own home because I'm afraid
Speaker 1: that if they show up here and they see this
Speaker 1: woman here and they see me, then it's going to
Speaker 1: be a problem. Now, I know that was a super
Speaker 1: duper personal story, and I hope that I didn't freak
Speaker 1: anybody out. Nothing happened. Obviously, me and this person were
Speaker 1: still cool. It was a mental breakdown episode, and then
Speaker 1: once all the information came out, everything was fine and
Speaker 1: there was a ton of apologies. But the point of
Speaker 1: that story is to explain why calling the police is
Speaker 1: a dangerous thing. You know, I remember speaking to my
Speaker 1: lawyer at that time and she, my lawyer, told me,
Speaker 1: she's like, I'm so glad you didn't call the police,
Speaker 1: because all they need to do is hear something from
Speaker 1: a neighbor, from anything like that, and they'll put you
Speaker 1: under two jails. She said, it just like that. So
Speaker 1: for this young man at this hotel in Fort Lauderdale,
Speaker 1: let me say his name again, where did I put
Speaker 1: his name? Rashall for him? I understand why you needed
Speaker 1: to call the police, and I feel bad that it
Speaker 1: didn't go the way that you had hoped, but I recognized,
Speaker 1: as you probably did, that there was perhaps a small
Speaker 1: chance of it working out in that way. Anyway. With
Speaker 1: that said, you probably didn't have much in the way
Speaker 1: of options. So that's that. Moving on, it's time for
Speaker 1: the Way Black History fact. This comes from abcnews dot Com. Today.
Speaker 1: We're going to be talking about the Harlem hell Fighters.
Speaker 1: These guys are awesome. I loved kind of putting a
Speaker 1: little bit of research into this one, so yeah, buckle up,
Speaker 1: all right, New York City. The three hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: ninth Infantry Regiment, nicknamed the Harlem Health Fighters, were the
Speaker 1: first African American Regiment to serve with the American Expeditionary
Speaker 1: Force in World War One. Their accomplishments and heroism stood
Speaker 1: in star contrast to the racism and discrimination they faced
Speaker 1: on the home front. Their story has largely been overlooked
Speaker 1: in mainstream US history. Shout out to us one time,
Speaker 1: Shout out to civic cipher, because we're here to make
Speaker 1: sure it doesn't get overlooked anymore. All right, your way,
Speaker 1: black history effect. All right, I'll continue now one hundred
Speaker 1: and three years act to the regiment service in World
Speaker 1: War One. It will receive Congress's highest award, the Congressional
Speaker 1: Gold Medal. The House and Senate voted unanimously to honor
Speaker 1: the health Fighters, and President Joe Biden signed HR thirty
Speaker 1: six forty two, the Harlem Health Fighters Congressional Gold Medal Act,
Speaker 1: into law. That happened last year. Okay. In nineteen sixteen,
Speaker 1: New York Governor Charles Whitmen formed the fifteenth New York
Speaker 1: Colored National Guard Regiment, which became the three hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty ninth Infantry Regiment after the US entered World War One.
Speaker 1: The majority of the men were from Harlem. In their
Speaker 1: ranks were hotel porters, mailmen, and doormen. The men were
Speaker 1: the first black soldiers in New York's National Guard. Prior
Speaker 1: to their deployment in Europe, they were denied permission to
Speaker 1: take part in the farewell parade for the Army's forty
Speaker 1: second Division, known as the Rainbow Division. I want to
Speaker 1: say that again. They were denied permission to take part
Speaker 1: in the farewell parade. Heyward was told, quote, black is
Speaker 1: not a color of the Rainbow. It was a sign
Speaker 1: of the lack of acceptance, prejudice, and discrimination Blacks faced
Speaker 1: in the military and in the country at large. African
Speaker 1: Americans were considered inferior and not up for serving as soldiers.
Speaker 1: Their patriotism, intelligence, and courage were questioned. Once in Europe,
Speaker 1: the regiment was not a newly meant to serve at
Speaker 1: the front line. Instead, it was tasked with supply jobs
Speaker 1: in media labor. Like most black troops, Colonel Haywood reportedly
Speaker 1: lobbied General John J. Pershing to let the unit fight
Speaker 1: the French were in need of troops. On March first,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen, the regiment was renamed the three hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty ninth Infantry Regiment ninety third Division. According to former
Speaker 1: National Archives Senior archivist Barbara leuis Berger, they joined the
Speaker 1: French Armies one hundred and sixty first Division and began
Speaker 1: combat in April. Colonel Haywood wrote to a friend, quote
Speaker 1: our great American general simply put the black orphan in
Speaker 1: a basket, set it on the doorstep of the French,
Speaker 1: pulled the bill and went away end quote though the Army.
Speaker 1: Though the American Army didn't want black soldiers fighting alongside
Speaker 1: white ones, the French welcomed their help. In addition to
Speaker 1: his musical duties, Lieutenant Europe commanded a machine gun company.
Speaker 1: He was wounded in a June nineteen eighteen German Gaps attack.
Speaker 1: He wrote the song on patrol in No Man's Land
Speaker 1: while he was recovering in hospital. After his recovery, he
Speaker 1: was ruled unfit for combat, but continued to lead the
Speaker 1: Regi Band in performances in front of big crowds in Paris.
Speaker 1: The Regimental Band is credited with bringing jazz to Europe.
Speaker 1: I left that in there because I thought that was important.
Speaker 1: If you ever spend any time in places like Paris
Speaker 1: or whatever, that jazz that's American, that's black has its
Speaker 1: roots in a slave field, made it over there because
Speaker 1: of things like this. It was important to mention that
Speaker 1: I'll continue. The unit distinguished themselves in combat, including in
Speaker 1: the Second Battle of the Marne on July fifteen, nineteen eighteen.
Speaker 1: Fighting alongside the French, the three hundred and sixty ninth
Speaker 1: lost fourteen men and sustained fifty one injuries, and the
Speaker 1: Meuse are Gone offensive in Sechalte, France on September twenty nine,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen. The three hundred and sixty nine took the
Speaker 1: town but suffered some of the worst casualties by an
Speaker 1: American regiment in the war. One third of the unit
Speaker 1: were casualties of the battle. The men served one hundred
Speaker 1: and ninety one days on the front lines, more than
Speaker 1: any other American unit. The French. This part feels special,
Speaker 1: the French, not the American. The French awarded all one
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy one soldiers the craus de gueur for valor.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the craw de geur is, but
Speaker 1: it sounds important. We're just talking about them now. French
Speaker 1: people gave all of them that distinction, that valor, that
Speaker 1: special returning Black veterans confronted the reality of a country
Speaker 1: that still held black people in a low regard and
Speaker 1: feared them. Racist attacks were widespread upon their return to
Speaker 1: the US in what became known as the Red Summer
Speaker 1: of nineteen nineteen. Coined by James Weldon Terry of the NAACP,
Speaker 1: that summer saw violent attacks, including race riots, mob violence,
Speaker 1: and lyncheons initiated by white servicemen against black veterans. In
Speaker 1: many cases, a purple heart was finally presented to Private
Speaker 1: Johnson posthumously by President Bill Clinton in nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 1: He received the Medal of Honor in twenty fifteen from
Speaker 1: President Barack Obama, ninety seven years after his actions on
Speaker 1: the battlefield. Obama said, quote, his injuries left him crippled,
Speaker 1: he couldn't find work, his marriage fell apart, and in
Speaker 1: his early thirties he passed away. America can't change what
Speaker 1: happened to Henry Johnson. We can't change what happened to
Speaker 1: too many soldiers like him who went uncelebrated because our
Speaker 1: nation judged them by the color of the skin and
Speaker 1: not by the content of their character. But we can
Speaker 1: do our best to make it right. Que So the
Speaker 1: Harlem Hill Fighters, you live again here on civic side. Man.
Speaker 1: I know the radio goes like to the country, but
Speaker 1: I hope that the radio goes to like whatever the
Speaker 1: great beyond is. I think technically radio waves kind of
Speaker 1: go out into space, so whatever is out there, man,
Speaker 1: I hope you guys can hear that. We're proud of you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. If we were able to put on a
Speaker 1: parade for you, we would do it. We were born
Speaker 1: and I was born in the eighties and Q was
Speaker 1: born in the eighties, so we can't you know, you
Speaker 1: were gone by then. But we're very proud of you.
Speaker 1: Thank you for that. Thank you for making us proud.
Speaker 1: We have a hard story sometimes, but it's a good story.
Speaker 1: We're gonna make it a good story, and you started
Speaker 1: it and we appreciate that. All right. Cute anything at
Speaker 1: like thirty.
Speaker 2: Seconds, it's a It's exhausting sometimes, it's exhausting a lot
Speaker 2: of the time. Our history on this country, it almost
Speaker 2: always sounds like this. Somehow, the best music, somehow, the
Speaker 2: biggest smiles, somehow, the most prize still comes from people
Speaker 2: that look like us, in the country that has always
Speaker 2: viewed us and treated us this way. It's exhausting for
Speaker 2: those of you that are listening to this that don't
Speaker 2: look like us, that support us.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 2: I hope that at some point during maybe my kids' lives,
Speaker 2: the story doesn't always go this way.
Speaker 1: Well, I think that's going to do it for us today.
Speaker 1: So thank you for listening to us here on Civic Cipher.
Speaker 1: Once again, I'm your host rams this job. I go
Speaker 1: by the name q Ward. Yes, indeed, be sure to
Speaker 1: hit the website Civiccipher dot com. Submit all your questions
Speaker 1: that you might have about the show, any topics that
Speaker 1: you want us to discuss. You can make a donation.
Speaker 1: The show is growing again Patreon. That really helps. It's
Speaker 1: a monthly donation and it gives us sort of a budget.
Speaker 1: Consider it. Police follow us on all social media. We're
Speaker 1: at cid etcing. Of course, you can down on this
Speaker 1: in any previous episodes by hing the website until next week.
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