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Speaker 1: Pushkin Hello.

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Speaker 2: Hello.

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Speaker 1: Before we get on with our show, I want you

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Speaker 1: to know that your Pushkin Plus subscription grants you early

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Speaker 1: access to Medal of Honor episodes one week before they

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Speaker 1: were released to the public. That's one week of exclusive access.

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts or by visiting Pushkin, dot Fm, slash Plus.

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Speaker 1: Now onto the episode. It was a clear day in

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Speaker 1: New York City, February nineteen nineteen. The winter sun shone

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Speaker 1: down warmly on masters of people lining both sides of

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Speaker 1: Fifth Avenue. The parade route was seven miles long, and

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Speaker 1: they were cheering crowds along every inch of it. People

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Speaker 1: were john for a peak of thousands of soldiers who

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Speaker 1: were marching uptown in perfect military formation. These men were

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Speaker 1: just back from the most apocalyptic conflict the world had

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Speaker 1: ever seen, World War One, the Great War, as they

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Speaker 1: called it back then. The men were wearing dark wool

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Speaker 1: uniforms and steel helmets. The bayonets of their rifles gleamed

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Speaker 1: in the sun. Some of the men were shell shocked,

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Speaker 1: some were exhausted. All of them were grateful to have

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Speaker 1: made it back home, and all the men were black.

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Speaker 1: They were known as the Harlem Hell Fighters, the three

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Speaker 1: hundred and sixty ninth Infantry Regiment of the United States Army.

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Speaker 1: This parade was their triumphant return to New York City,

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Speaker 1: the city that had given them their unofficial name. In

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Speaker 1: nineteen nineteen, troops were still segregated. Discrimination wasn't confined to

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Speaker 1: the Jim Crow South. It reached all the way to

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Speaker 1: the trenches on the European Front. But the Harlem Hell

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Speaker 1: Fighters were some of the most highly decorated soldiers in

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Speaker 1: the Great War. They had seen one hundred and ninety

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Speaker 1: one days of combat, the longest of any regiment, and

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Speaker 1: they had never had a man taken prisoner or lost

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Speaker 1: a foot of ground. There were more than two thousand

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Speaker 1: Harlem Hell Fighters in that parade, all them heroes, but

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Speaker 1: as one in particular that I want to tell you about.

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Speaker 1: His name was Henry Johnson, but as he rode past,

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Speaker 1: the spectators called out to him by his nickname Black Death.

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Speaker 1: Of all the Harlem Hell Fighters, Henry Johnson had made

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Speaker 1: the biggest impression back home in the trenches of France.

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Speaker 1: In the dark of night. He had single handedly taken

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Speaker 1: on an invading enemy force. He had survived twenty one

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Speaker 1: near fatal wounds, and he had rescued another wounded soldier

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Speaker 1: who the Germans were trying to take prisoner. Every person

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Speaker 1: at that parade knew Henry Johnson's story made it back

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Speaker 1: to the US. Long before he did. Henry was featured

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Speaker 1: on army recruitment posters and advertisements. He was profiled in

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Speaker 1: newspapers and magazines. Out of a fighting force of millions,

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Speaker 1: Henry Johnson had become one of the most famous soldiers

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Speaker 1: in the entire war. Henry rolled up this avenue in

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Speaker 1: an open topped cadillac. He couldn't march with the rest

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Speaker 1: of the troops. His foot had been destroyed in the battle.

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Speaker 1: It was being held together by a metal plate. He

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Speaker 1: waved and smiled as the crowds shouted his name. At

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Speaker 1: that moment, Henry was the most famous person in New

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Speaker 1: York City. But only ten years later Henry Johnson would

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Speaker 1: die poor and broken, and soon enough his story would

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Speaker 1: be nearly forgotten. The Battle of Henry Johnson might have

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Speaker 1: started in France, but he kept going long after the war.

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Speaker 1: It went on, in fact, for ninety seven years until finally,

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Speaker 1: one of the most famous soldiers of World War I

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Speaker 1: would be awarded our country's highest recognition for courage, the

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Speaker 1: Medal of Honor, him Malcolm Gladwell. And this is Medal

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Speaker 1: of Honor Stories of Courage. The Medal of Honor is

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Speaker 1: the highest military decoration in the United States. It's awarded

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Speaker 1: for gallantry and bravery in combat at the risk of life,

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Speaker 1: above and beyond the call of duty. Each candidate must

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Speaker 1: be approved all the way up the chain of command,

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Speaker 1: from the supervisory officer in the field to the White House.

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Speaker 1: This show is about those heroes, what they did, what

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Speaker 1: it meant, and what their stories tell us about the

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Speaker 1: nature of courage and sacrifice today. The never ending battle

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Speaker 1: of Henry Johnson. Let's start with the Harlem hell Fighters.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's there in the name, right, total badasses.

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Speaker 1: Other regiments have nicknames like the Rock of the Marne,

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Speaker 1: the Liberators, the puzzlingly named Armorators, or my personal favorite,

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Speaker 1: the nickname for the one hundred and first Airborne Division,

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Speaker 1: which at some point during World War II became known

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Speaker 1: as the Battered Bastards of Best Doin. But to understand

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Speaker 1: Henry Johnson, you first have to understand the Harlem hell Fighters.

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Speaker 1: They started out as the fifteenth Infantry of the New

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Speaker 1: York National Guard. At the time, they were the only

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Speaker 1: black regiment in New York State. When the US went

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Speaker 1: to war in April nineteen seventeen, men rushed to join

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Speaker 1: the fifteenth. They came from across New York, but the

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Speaker 1: vast majority of them were from Harlem. There wasn't a

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Speaker 1: draft yet, they didn't have to go to war. They

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Speaker 1: wanted to go. All of them were volunteers, including Henry Johnson.

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Speaker 1: He was small, a slight man with a sweet disposition.

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Speaker 1: He had a massive smile and wore his army issue

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Speaker 1: cap at a rakish tilt to the side. He almost

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Speaker 1: hadn't met the physical requirements to enlist. You had to

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Speaker 1: be five foot four, and he was barely that. But

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Speaker 1: he was resourceful and he was tough. As his wife,

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Speaker 1: Edna Jackson would say, Henry wasn't big, but oh boy,

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Speaker 1: he can go some. Like a lot of the thirty

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Speaker 1: six hundred men of the fifteenth Infantry, Henry saw the

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Speaker 1: military as a chance to serve his country and have

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Speaker 1: steady work. It was risky, but if he survived, it

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Speaker 1: could mean a better life, so he joined up. Back

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Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies, a documentary crew tracked down one

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Speaker 1: of the last surviving Harlem hell Fighters, a guy named

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Speaker 1: Melville Morris. He talked about the pride they all had

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Speaker 1: in the fifteenth.

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Speaker 2: Every man felt he was in the best squad, in

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Speaker 2: the best regiment of the whole game in United States.

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Speaker 1: They set sail for France in the fall of nineteen seventeen,

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Speaker 1: but when they got there, instead of grenades and tanks,

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Speaker 1: they were handed shovels and wheelbarrows. The American Expeditionary Forces,

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Speaker 1: under the command of General John Pershing had no intention

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Speaker 1: of sending the fifteenth into battle. Instead, they would work

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Speaker 1: as stevedores, manual laborers. They were signed to lay railroad tracks.

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Speaker 1: Turns out Jim Crobb had followed the hell Fighters all

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Speaker 1: the way to Europe.

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Speaker 3: And General Persian said, there had no fighting blacks in

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Speaker 3: this war.

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Speaker 2: We train them in the stevedores.

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Speaker 3: Or send you back home. Were set downs on old

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Speaker 3: ships and do all kinds of details, but not fight

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Speaker 3: because Persian wanted he didn't want no puddles in his

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Speaker 3: division there or what lily white.

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Speaker 1: The fifteenth were trained to fight, and they knew they

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Speaker 1: could make a difference. They also knew what fighting would mean,

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Speaker 1: not just the war, but afterwards, when they went back

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Speaker 1: to the United States. A lieutenant from the fifteenth wrote

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Speaker 1: home from France to say, if we can't fight and

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Speaker 1: die in this war as bravely as white men, then

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Speaker 1: we don't deserve equality. But if we can do things

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Speaker 1: at the front, if we can make ourselves felt, if

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Speaker 1: we can make America really proud, then it will be

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Speaker 1: the biggest possible step towards our equalization as citizens. Henry

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Speaker 1: had worked as a baggage handler in Albany before the war.

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Speaker 1: He was strong, he had grown up in hard scrabble

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Speaker 1: North Carolina. He knew adversity, and he was deeply proud

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Speaker 1: to be an American soldier. Being kept out of the

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Speaker 1: fighting wasn't just frustrating, it was infuriating. And then in

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Speaker 1: March of nineteen eighteen, the fifteenth Infantry got their chance.

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Speaker 1: The French army was at its breaking point. They'd been

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Speaker 1: on the front lines for three years and lost more

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Speaker 1: than a million men. Look to the soldiers of the

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Speaker 1: fifteenth and figured, the white Americans don't want to fight

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Speaker 1: with him, so maybe we can so they requested their service.

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Speaker 1: The fifteenth was quickly renamed the three hundred and sixty

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Speaker 1: ninth Infantry Regiment of the United States Army, and they

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Speaker 1: went off to join the French. This, by the way,

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Speaker 1: was pretty much unheard of. The US military did not

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Speaker 1: lend out soldiers, but loaning the hell Fighters solved a problem.

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Speaker 1: General Pershing wouldn't have to worry about keeping his black

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Speaker 1: and white soldiers apart. Plus, it was a nice thing

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Speaker 1: for an ally to do, and as an extra neighborly act,

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Speaker 1: his staff sent their French liaison a document titled Secret

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Speaker 1: Information concerning Black American Troops. It warned about the dangers

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Speaker 1: of relying on quote unquote inferior black soldiers. It noted

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Speaker 1: that their quote vices were a quote constant menace, and

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Speaker 1: it asked the French not to treat the black soldiers

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Speaker 1: as equal warning against ea with them or even shaking

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Speaker 1: their hands otherwise, the document explained the men might expect

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Speaker 1: the same treatment when they got back to America. But

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Speaker 1: the French welcomed the newly christened three hundred and sixty

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Speaker 1: ninth Infantry into their army as fast as they possibly could.

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Speaker 1: In that nineteen seventies documentary I mentioned, you can hear

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Speaker 1: how excited Melville was about all things French.

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Speaker 2: We got French helmets, French canteens, French rifles, and instead

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Speaker 2: of water canteen, where should French wine? And we joined

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Speaker 2: the fourth French Army.

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Speaker 1: They were sent to the Argonne Forest in the northeastern

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Speaker 1: corner of France to join the beleaguered French troops in

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Speaker 1: the trenches. And when they got there, it turns out

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Speaker 1: that three hundred and sixty ninth weren't just ready to fight,

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Speaker 1: they were great at it, and soon enough, thanks to

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Speaker 1: their tenacity and their skill, they had earned their new name,

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Speaker 1: the Harlem hell Fighters. Back home, though, the truth of

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Speaker 1: what they face as black soldiers, that white American soldiers

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Speaker 1: did not want to serve alongside them, was being very

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Speaker 1: carefully hidden. We'll be back in a minute. In the

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Speaker 1: early hours of May fifteenth, nineteen eighteen, Henry Johnson and

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Speaker 1: his friend and fellow hell Fighter Needham Roberts, were sent

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Speaker 1: to a listening post in No Man's Land, the area

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Speaker 1: between the French trenches and the German position picture a

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Speaker 1: wide swath of desolate terrain parked with craters and burnt trees.

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Speaker 1: The French were holding the western side in deep trenches

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Speaker 1: rimmed with barbed wire. The Germans were holding the east.

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Speaker 1: Henry and Needham's job was to stay up through the

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Speaker 1: night and be the eyes and ears of their platoon.

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Speaker 1: If they heard or saw anything suspicious, they were to

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Speaker 1: alert the rest of the troops. The hell fighters had

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Speaker 1: seen two months of action, the Germans had seen three years.

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Speaker 1: They'd become experts at raiding trenches, coming by surprise, killing,

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Speaker 1: taking soldiers prisoner, and pumping them for intelligence. That night,

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Speaker 1: everyone was on edge. They were sure a raiding party

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Speaker 1: was going to come. So sure a French lieutenant ordered

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Speaker 1: Henry and Needham back to safety. Henry, as he told

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Speaker 1: reporters later, wasn't having it. Lieutenant, He said, I'm an

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Speaker 1: American and I never retreat. Henry and Needham stood watch

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Speaker 1: all through the pitch black night. Their ears were tuned

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Speaker 1: to everything around them, the wind whistling through no man's land,

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Speaker 1: a rustle in the leaves. Then at two or three

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Speaker 1: in the morning, they heard an ominous gnawing noise. Crunch, crunch, crunch.

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Speaker 1: It was the sound of wire cutters. Suddenly, an enemy

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Speaker 1: flare that the dark. The Germans had arrived. Grenades exploded,

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Speaker 1: and bullets cut through the night. Air Shrapnel tore through

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Speaker 1: Henry and Needham's uniforms their skin. Henry threw grenades of

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Speaker 1: his own, his heart racing, he shouldered his rifle and

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Speaker 1: started shooting. Needham, meanwhile, had been wounded in the arm

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Speaker 1: and hip, and he lost consciousness. Henry was fighting alone.

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Speaker 1: In an instant, the Germans were on top of them.

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Speaker 1: Henry couldn't see how many ten twenty. He realized with

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Speaker 1: horror that they were going to drag need Him away.

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Speaker 1: The hell Fighters hadn't yet let a man be captured

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Speaker 1: as a prisoner. They prided themselves on that he had

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Speaker 1: to keep them from taking Needham. Henry had fired all

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Speaker 1: the rounds in his rifle, and when he went to

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Speaker 1: reload it, it jammed unusable, so he turned his rifle

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Speaker 1: around and swung it wildly. Alone and mobbed by the enemy,

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Speaker 1: he beat back the Germans until the butt of his

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Speaker 1: rifle broke. Then he remembered his bolo knife. If you

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Speaker 1: don't know what a bolo knife, let me put it

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Speaker 1: this way. You don't cut butter with it. Nine to

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Speaker 1: fourteen inches long, with a razor sharp blade along one side.

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Speaker 1: Henry swung the knife and took down one enemy's soldier.

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Speaker 1: Then another shots rang out. Henry was hit in the

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Speaker 1: right forearm, right hip, and left leg, but he kept stabbing.

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Speaker 1: He swung his knife till the Germans turned and ran

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Speaker 1: into the night. He slashed and thrust until he was

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Speaker 1: sure his friend was safe. Henry, as his wife Edna knew,

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Speaker 1: could go so he'd lost a lot of blood. He

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Speaker 1: struggled to stay conscious. He just couldn't, and as he

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Speaker 1: sank to the ground, Henry hurled one last grenade, hitting

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Speaker 1: and killing an enemy's soldier. As he fled, reinforcements reached

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Speaker 1: the listening post a few minutes later. Melville remembers it

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Speaker 1: Henry had been wounded twenty one times.

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Speaker 2: Well, he refused to die and took Johnson and Roberts.

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Speaker 2: We finally got out there in the morning, dragged their

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Speaker 2: bodies back. They weren't dead and both lived through it.

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Speaker 1: The next morning, as the two recovered in the hospital,

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Speaker 1: their commanding officers surveyed the path of the Germans retreat.

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Speaker 1: His captain Arthur Little wrote, quote, we trailed the course

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Speaker 1: with the greatest of ease, by pulls of blood, blood

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Speaker 1: soaked bandages, and blood smeared logs with the routed party

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Speaker 1: had rested. They also discovered that the raiding party had

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Speaker 1: left behind a small but very valuable collection of weapons

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Speaker 1: and intelligence. They deduced that as many as twenty four

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Speaker 1: Germans had been on the scene, yet Henry had held

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Speaker 1: them off in hand to hand combat without a working firearm.

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Speaker 1: In the dark, he kept them from crossing the French line,

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Speaker 1: and just a few minutes of fighting he had defeated

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Speaker 1: an entire raiding party. That's why when Henry came back home,

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00:16:06,436 --> 00:16:10,556
Speaker 1: everyone in America knew his name. The day after the battle,

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00:16:10,916 --> 00:16:14,916
Speaker 1: three American reporters arrived at the scene. While General Pershing

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Speaker 1: had restricted news about American military operations overseas, the French

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Speaker 1: had no such rules, and the three hundred and sixty

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Speaker 1: ninth was, after all, embedded with the French. The journalists

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Speaker 1: raised to speak to Needham and Henry at the hospital.

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Speaker 1: They sent their reports back to the States, where people

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Speaker 1: were desperate for some news, any news of progress in

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Speaker 1: the war. Henry was happy to talk to the reporters

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Speaker 1: about that night and that Bolo knife. Each slash meant

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Speaker 1: something believe me, he told them, I just fought my life.

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Speaker 1: A rabbit would have done that. His actions, wrote the

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00:16:51,916 --> 00:16:55,116
Speaker 1: Saturday Evening Post, were proof that the color of a

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Speaker 1: man's skin has nothing to do with the color of

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Speaker 1: his soul. Two days after the attack, the French sixteenth Division,

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Speaker 1: which commanded the hell Fighters, officially recognized the actions of

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Speaker 1: Needham and Henry. Both received the French Quadiguere, the country's

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Speaker 1: highest military honor. They were some of the first U.

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Speaker 1: S soldiers ever to earn this distinction. Henry's medal also

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00:17:19,836 --> 00:17:23,796
Speaker 1: included the Bronze Palm for extraordinary valor, and that's when

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00:17:23,796 --> 00:17:28,796
Speaker 1: he got his nickname Black Death. It took two days

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Speaker 1: for the French to award Henry's courage. It would take

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Speaker 1: decades for the United States to do the same. Henry

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00:17:40,236 --> 00:17:42,836
Speaker 1: spent the rest of the war in a French hospital

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Speaker 1: recovering from his injuries. His foot had been destroyed, and

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00:17:46,996 --> 00:17:50,756
Speaker 1: the army awarded him the Wounded Chevron, an acknowledgment of

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Speaker 1: his disabilities. They also upgraded his rank from private to sergeant.

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Speaker 1: But while the French were willing to honor his courage

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Speaker 1: and valor with a medal, the American military would not,

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00:18:03,036 --> 00:18:04,956
Speaker 1: even though by the end of the war in the

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Speaker 1: winter of nineteen eighteen, the Harlem hell Fighters had served

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Speaker 1: longer in the trench, which is than any other American regiment,

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Speaker 1: and they had suffered the most losses, with fifteen hundred casualties.

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Speaker 1: A reporter from a local paper found Henry at the

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Speaker 1: pier as he got off the steamer coming home to

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Speaker 1: New York and described him this way. His lip is

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Speaker 1: scarred by a knife slash, his head holds a dent

286
00:18:29,116 --> 00:18:32,276
Speaker 1: made by a rifle butt. In his hand is the

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00:18:32,316 --> 00:18:35,956
Speaker 1: welt of a bayonet's slash, and a silver plate keeps

288
00:18:35,956 --> 00:18:39,876
Speaker 1: his left foot in place. He got his heroes welcome.

289
00:18:40,436 --> 00:18:42,956
Speaker 1: Henry rode in a place of honor in the parade

290
00:18:43,036 --> 00:18:47,636
Speaker 1: up Fifth Avenue, carrying a bouquet of lilies. Melville remembered it, well.

291
00:18:48,436 --> 00:18:53,556
Speaker 2: Everybody wanted to see Henry Johnson. Everybody wanted to shakers here.

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Speaker 2: That's one day that it wasn't a sighted bit.

293
00:18:56,916 --> 00:19:02,036
Speaker 1: Of prejudice in New York City. Henry was featured on

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00:19:02,076 --> 00:19:05,756
Speaker 1: an ad for war stamps. It read Henry Johnson licked

295
00:19:05,756 --> 00:19:09,636
Speaker 1: a dozen Germans. How many stamps have you licked? But

296
00:19:09,756 --> 00:19:13,516
Speaker 1: Henry was exhausted, physically broken. When he got off the

297
00:19:13,556 --> 00:19:16,316
Speaker 1: train in Albany, finally home, he was greeted by New

298
00:19:16,356 --> 00:19:19,196
Speaker 1: York Governor L Smith and a group of cheering fans.

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00:19:19,716 --> 00:19:22,436
Speaker 1: He was grateful, of course, but pay attention to what

300
00:19:22,436 --> 00:19:25,876
Speaker 1: he said to the reporters quote, I am very proud

301
00:19:25,876 --> 00:19:28,196
Speaker 1: of all of you, but I am sick and tired.

302
00:19:28,876 --> 00:19:30,996
Speaker 1: I just want to say that I am glad to

303
00:19:31,036 --> 00:19:35,276
Speaker 1: get back home. He didn't want to be celebrated, but

304
00:19:35,356 --> 00:19:37,796
Speaker 1: the welcoming party wouldn't take no for an answer, and

305
00:19:37,916 --> 00:19:40,876
Speaker 1: Henry was paraded around the city and hustled to get

306
00:19:40,876 --> 00:19:44,796
Speaker 1: another fancy dinner. Governor Smith promised to name a street

307
00:19:44,916 --> 00:19:48,516
Speaker 1: after him, and then the Attorney General's office started raising

308
00:19:48,516 --> 00:19:51,436
Speaker 1: funds to build a new house for Henry too, but

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00:19:51,596 --> 00:19:55,236
Speaker 1: those things came at a price. He was asked to

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00:19:55,276 --> 00:19:58,196
Speaker 1: speak before the New York State Senate Judiciary Committee, and

311
00:19:58,236 --> 00:20:03,356
Speaker 1: he had terrible stage fright, sweating and stammering. Afterwards, the

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00:20:03,396 --> 00:20:08,236
Speaker 1: papers announced hero flunks in speech effort, and maybe because

313
00:20:08,516 --> 00:20:12,276
Speaker 1: the real Henry wasn't so keen on public appearances, fake

314
00:20:12,356 --> 00:20:15,636
Speaker 1: Henry Johnson's started popping up to take his place and

315
00:20:15,676 --> 00:20:19,076
Speaker 1: make money off it. Two fake Henry's were arrested in

316
00:20:19,116 --> 00:20:23,076
Speaker 1: Albany selling photographs. Henry asked the judge to go easy

317
00:20:23,076 --> 00:20:25,996
Speaker 1: on them and offered to lend the impersonator's money if

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00:20:26,036 --> 00:20:30,276
Speaker 1: they needed it. The newspapers noted that quote, he doesn't

319
00:20:30,356 --> 00:20:33,276
Speaker 1: care for the honors himself, but he hates to have

320
00:20:33,316 --> 00:20:38,196
Speaker 1: the public imposed upon Then another fake Henry appeared in

321
00:20:38,276 --> 00:20:41,716
Speaker 1: Saint Louis before thousands of fans and the city's mayor.

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00:20:42,156 --> 00:20:45,836
Speaker 1: That one was hauled off to jail. So now the

323
00:20:45,876 --> 00:20:48,636
Speaker 1: pressure was on the real Henry to get out there

324
00:20:48,676 --> 00:20:53,676
Speaker 1: and speak for himself. The organizers of the Saint Louis

325
00:20:53,676 --> 00:20:56,796
Speaker 1: event pleaded with him to come and speak, and, maybe

326
00:20:56,836 --> 00:20:59,436
Speaker 1: because he felt badly that they had been deceived, or

327
00:20:59,436 --> 00:21:02,756
Speaker 1: maybe because he needed the money, he went to be

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00:21:02,796 --> 00:21:06,476
Speaker 1: the star attraction in an evening celebrating black contributions to

329
00:21:06,516 --> 00:21:10,476
Speaker 1: the war effort. It was held in the Colosseum, the

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Speaker 1: largest and most luxurious venue in all of Saint Louis.

331
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Speaker 1: Five thousand people gathered to hear him tell his story.

332
00:21:18,796 --> 00:21:22,596
Speaker 1: He was walking into an atmosphere bubbling with racial tension

333
00:21:23,476 --> 00:21:26,796
Speaker 1: in Saint Louis and across the country. Lynchings were in

334
00:21:26,836 --> 00:21:30,796
Speaker 1: the news constantly. The klu Kluck's Klan was on the rise,

335
00:21:30,876 --> 00:21:33,636
Speaker 1: not just in the South, but stretching the whole width

336
00:21:33,716 --> 00:21:37,956
Speaker 1: of the United States, from New Jersey to Oregon. So

337
00:21:38,036 --> 00:21:42,116
Speaker 1: the evening of Friday, March twenty eighth, nineteen nineteen was

338
00:21:42,156 --> 00:21:44,876
Speaker 1: meant to be a joyful one, but also to walk

339
00:21:44,916 --> 00:21:48,836
Speaker 1: a very thin line on the question of race. Dramatic oratory,

340
00:21:49,356 --> 00:21:52,916
Speaker 1: heroic stories, a tribute to the sacrifice of a community,

341
00:21:53,436 --> 00:21:58,636
Speaker 1: and a small request for rights. It started out the

342
00:21:58,756 --> 00:22:01,796
Speaker 1: usual way. First there was a welcome from the mayor

343
00:22:01,836 --> 00:22:04,916
Speaker 1: of Saint Louis that was followed by speeches from a

344
00:22:04,956 --> 00:22:08,436
Speaker 1: Missouri senator, the president of the city's board of aldermen,

345
00:22:08,876 --> 00:22:12,956
Speaker 1: a congressman, and more. Then a series of black preachers spoke,

346
00:22:13,436 --> 00:22:17,796
Speaker 1: and one, a minister for Mississippi, called for the enfranchisement

347
00:22:18,036 --> 00:22:21,196
Speaker 1: of black voters in his home state. The man who

348
00:22:21,236 --> 00:22:23,516
Speaker 1: is good enough to carry a musket in no Man's

349
00:22:23,596 --> 00:22:26,236
Speaker 1: Land is good enough to carry a ballot in the

350
00:22:26,276 --> 00:22:30,276
Speaker 1: state of Mississippi, he said. Another preacher made the case

351
00:22:30,436 --> 00:22:33,076
Speaker 1: that black people should be included in the new wave

352
00:22:33,116 --> 00:22:36,956
Speaker 1: of post war industry, each one of them asking politely

353
00:22:36,996 --> 00:22:40,556
Speaker 1: for those things that were supposed to be their ineligenable rights,

354
00:22:41,156 --> 00:22:45,716
Speaker 1: not being too controversial. And then it was Henry's turn.

355
00:22:46,476 --> 00:22:49,116
Speaker 1: He was supposed to get up on stage and smile

356
00:22:49,316 --> 00:22:53,236
Speaker 1: and wave, just like he did during that parade. We

357
00:22:53,236 --> 00:22:56,436
Speaker 1: don't have Henry's personal letters or his diaries. We can't

358
00:22:56,436 --> 00:23:00,556
Speaker 1: know exactly what he was thinking, but here's a clue.

359
00:23:00,596 --> 00:23:04,556
Speaker 1: He kept the dignitaries and the politicians waiting on the

360
00:23:04,596 --> 00:23:11,356
Speaker 1: stage to begin the event for an hour, the mayor,

361
00:23:11,716 --> 00:23:15,916
Speaker 1: the senator, five thousand people, all them waiting. What was

362
00:23:15,916 --> 00:23:19,636
Speaker 1: he doing pacing in the hall, back and forth, back

363
00:23:19,636 --> 00:23:24,996
Speaker 1: and forth, thinking about something. Maybe he still had terrible

364
00:23:25,036 --> 00:23:28,156
Speaker 1: stage fright. Maybe he was worn out from being carted

365
00:23:28,196 --> 00:23:31,956
Speaker 1: around like a curiosity. Or maybe what he was exhausted

366
00:23:31,996 --> 00:23:36,316
Speaker 1: by was all this politeness and forbearance. Maybe he was

367
00:23:36,396 --> 00:23:39,396
Speaker 1: sick of pleading for equality from the country the Harlem

368
00:23:39,436 --> 00:23:42,076
Speaker 1: hell fighters had been willing to fight and die for.

369
00:23:42,676 --> 00:23:47,396
Speaker 1: We can't know, but what happened next changed the trajectory

370
00:23:47,676 --> 00:23:53,276
Speaker 1: of Henry Johnson's life. He made his triumphant entrance, hobbling

371
00:23:53,356 --> 00:23:58,596
Speaker 1: on his shattered foot. The crowd went absolutely nuts. He

372
00:23:58,636 --> 00:24:01,476
Speaker 1: stepped to the mic alone like he'd been that night

373
00:24:01,556 --> 00:24:05,436
Speaker 1: in no man's land, and whatever upbeat, happy thing he

374
00:24:05,556 --> 00:24:08,956
Speaker 1: was meant to say, he didn't say it. His tone

375
00:24:08,996 --> 00:24:13,556
Speaker 1: was bitter. Equal treatment in the war was a lie.

376
00:24:13,636 --> 00:24:16,796
Speaker 1: He said, there was no racial friendship. In the trenches.

377
00:24:17,316 --> 00:24:21,916
Speaker 1: Black troops suffered prejudicial treatment from white American soldiers, and

378
00:24:21,956 --> 00:24:26,676
Speaker 1: those white soldiers weren't just bigots, they were cowards. Henry

379
00:24:26,716 --> 00:24:29,356
Speaker 1: told the colosseum that a white major had said, and

380
00:24:29,396 --> 00:24:32,356
Speaker 1: I'm quoting here, send the Negro troops to the front.

381
00:24:32,716 --> 00:24:35,276
Speaker 1: There are two darn many negroes in New York anyway.

382
00:24:36,236 --> 00:24:39,156
Speaker 1: And then Henry added, if I were a white man

383
00:24:39,196 --> 00:24:42,756
Speaker 1: in Albany, I would have so much metal that I

384
00:24:42,756 --> 00:24:46,196
Speaker 1: would be the next governor of New York State. The

385
00:24:46,316 --> 00:24:51,996
Speaker 1: audience was stunned. Some uniform black officers left the stage

386
00:24:51,996 --> 00:24:56,356
Speaker 1: in protest. Others in the audience cheered. It was complete chaos.

387
00:24:56,916 --> 00:25:00,996
Speaker 1: What they all felt was shock. This guy was famous,

388
00:25:01,036 --> 00:25:03,756
Speaker 1: which in America means you're supposed to be happy, right

389
00:25:04,276 --> 00:25:06,756
Speaker 1: that did say this and say it in front of

390
00:25:06,796 --> 00:25:12,116
Speaker 1: white dignitaries. It simply was done. But Henry was used

391
00:25:12,116 --> 00:25:18,996
Speaker 1: to fighting alone. The Saint Louis Argus, the preeminent black

392
00:25:19,036 --> 00:25:21,996
Speaker 1: paper in the city reported on the evening with horror.

393
00:25:22,436 --> 00:25:26,516
Speaker 1: Remember times were precarious for black people, being outspoken like

394
00:25:26,596 --> 00:25:30,076
Speaker 1: Henry was a risk to the community's safety. The front

395
00:25:30,116 --> 00:25:36,956
Speaker 1: page blared Henry Johnson's speech insults Colosseum crowd. Missus Victoria

396
00:25:36,996 --> 00:25:39,556
Speaker 1: Clay Hayley, who had brought Henry to Saint Louis for

397
00:25:39,596 --> 00:25:42,836
Speaker 1: the event, swore, quote, of course we didn't know what

398
00:25:42,876 --> 00:25:44,996
Speaker 1: the man was going to say. We wouldn't have had

399
00:25:45,076 --> 00:25:46,916
Speaker 1: him come here to insult the white people of our

400
00:25:46,956 --> 00:25:50,596
Speaker 1: city for anything. He did us more harm than good,

401
00:25:51,636 --> 00:25:53,716
Speaker 1: and no one was more at risk of harm than

402
00:25:53,716 --> 00:25:57,716
Speaker 1: Henry himself. A group of angry Marines visited him at

403
00:25:57,716 --> 00:26:00,316
Speaker 1: his hotel, demanding that he'd take back what he had

404
00:26:00,316 --> 00:26:04,156
Speaker 1: said about cowardice among white troops, and the threats kept coming.

405
00:26:04,796 --> 00:26:09,036
Speaker 1: Henry escaped the city that evening in disguise. The military

406
00:26:09,116 --> 00:26:12,196
Speaker 1: Mary wanted nothing more to do with him. A federal

407
00:26:12,236 --> 00:26:15,036
Speaker 1: warrant was issued for his arrest, based on the complaint

408
00:26:15,036 --> 00:26:17,676
Speaker 1: of white soldiers who had said that Henry had quote

409
00:26:17,676 --> 00:26:22,316
Speaker 1: disparaged their valor unquote. The technical charge on the warrant

410
00:26:23,116 --> 00:26:27,436
Speaker 1: wearing the uniform after a prescribed time, whatever that means

411
00:26:28,076 --> 00:26:31,596
Speaker 1: The promised house in Albody never materialized. No street was

412
00:26:31,676 --> 00:26:34,516
Speaker 1: named after him. The most famous soldier in the world.

413
00:26:35,156 --> 00:26:37,756
Speaker 1: I'm going to bet you've never heard of him, but

414
00:26:37,836 --> 00:26:40,596
Speaker 1: I want you to think about that night. We tell

415
00:26:40,676 --> 00:26:45,836
Speaker 1: stories about war because the battlefield intensifies bravery. But that's

416
00:26:45,916 --> 00:26:50,236
Speaker 1: not the only place we're brave. It turns out sometimes

417
00:26:50,316 --> 00:26:55,236
Speaker 1: speaking of truth is the bravest and most dangerous act

418
00:26:55,236 --> 00:27:14,596
Speaker 1: of all. The years that followed pushed Henry into obscurity.

419
00:27:15,196 --> 00:27:19,196
Speaker 1: His marriage to Edna ended. He was permanently disabled by

420
00:27:19,196 --> 00:27:22,756
Speaker 1: his battle wounds. Unable to find steady work, he was

421
00:27:22,836 --> 00:27:25,916
Speaker 1: in and out of hospitals, and his tiny Army disability

422
00:27:25,956 --> 00:27:29,956
Speaker 1: payment wasn't enough to live off of His health declined,

423
00:27:30,516 --> 00:27:33,876
Speaker 1: he moved from Albany to Washington, d c. Then, in

424
00:27:33,956 --> 00:27:37,356
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty nine, just ten years after that grand parade

425
00:27:37,436 --> 00:27:41,156
Speaker 1: up Fifth Avenue, he passed away. He was only in

426
00:27:41,196 --> 00:27:46,796
Speaker 1: his thirties. The cause of death was myocarditis, a weakening

427
00:27:47,276 --> 00:27:50,996
Speaker 1: of the heart muscle. The papers covered his death in

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Speaker 1: a minor way. He was buried at Arlington Cemetery. Once again,

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Speaker 1: he was surrounded by black soldiers. The burial ground, like

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00:27:59,796 --> 00:28:03,996
Speaker 1: the military, was still segregated back then. The practice wouldn't

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Speaker 1: end until nineteen forty eight. That might have been the

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Speaker 1: end of Henry Johnson's story, his bravery in the trenches

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Speaker 1: forever overshadowed by his bravery on that stage in Saint Louis.

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Speaker 1: At least you could say he went down swinging. He

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Speaker 1: insisted on being seen for who he was, Not a

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00:28:22,916 --> 00:28:26,036
Speaker 1: mythical soldier who licked a dozen Germans, but a man

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00:28:26,076 --> 00:28:29,396
Speaker 1: who was frustrated by the limitations of his country. And

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00:28:29,436 --> 00:28:34,756
Speaker 1: then that country turned away from him. But some people

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00:28:34,796 --> 00:28:40,316
Speaker 1: remembered years after Henry's actions in France. Teddy Roosevelt Junior,

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00:28:40,396 --> 00:28:43,396
Speaker 1: the son of the former president and the future Medal

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00:28:43,396 --> 00:28:47,436
Speaker 1: of Honor recipient himself, described Henry as one of the

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00:28:47,516 --> 00:28:51,676
Speaker 1: five bravest soldiers in the war. In the nineteen fifties,

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Speaker 1: Langston Hughes, the great Black poet and playwright, considered writing

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Speaker 1: a book about him. Then in the early nineteen seventies,

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00:28:59,276 --> 00:29:01,516
Speaker 1: a group of veterans of the three hundred and sixty

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00:29:01,596 --> 00:29:06,196
Speaker 1: ninth Regiment decided to push for more. Henry had been

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00:29:06,236 --> 00:29:08,756
Speaker 1: one of them. After all, we wanted to write a

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00:29:08,796 --> 00:29:11,796
Speaker 1: wrong they said, So they started a movement for Henry

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00:29:11,796 --> 00:29:15,396
Speaker 1: to get the recognition he deserved. Led by two Vietnam vets,

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00:29:15,796 --> 00:29:19,916
Speaker 1: the group started lobbying Congress. They brought local, state, and

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00:29:19,996 --> 00:29:26,116
Speaker 1: federal officials into the fight. Slowly, slowly, they made progress.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety one, a memorial to Henry was erected

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00:29:29,916 --> 00:29:33,036
Speaker 1: in Albany, and a section of the city's northern boulevard

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00:29:33,436 --> 00:29:38,156
Speaker 1: was renamed Henry Johnson Boulevard. Finally, he had a street

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00:29:38,236 --> 00:29:42,156
Speaker 1: named after him in his hometown, one long forgotten promise kept.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety six, President Bill Clinton posthumously awarded Henry

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Speaker 1: Johnson the Purple Heart. In two thousand and two, the

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Speaker 1: Army gave him their second highest military honor, the Distinguished

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Speaker 1: Service Cross. Then Senator Chuck Schumer of New York threw

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00:30:00,556 --> 00:30:04,396
Speaker 1: his weight behind the ultimate goal, recognizing Henry with the

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00:30:04,436 --> 00:30:08,436
Speaker 1: Medal of Honor. In twenty eleven, a Schumer stafford discovered

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00:30:08,676 --> 00:30:13,036
Speaker 1: a long lost memo from General John Pershing, dated May

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00:30:13,276 --> 00:30:18,236
Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen, just after Henry's heroic stand. Even Pershing was

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00:30:18,236 --> 00:30:21,796
Speaker 1: impressed by Henry's actions, and he described them as quote

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Speaker 1: a notable instance of bravery and devotion. A Medal of

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00:30:27,116 --> 00:30:29,956
Speaker 1: Honor recipient has to be approved all the way up

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00:30:29,996 --> 00:30:33,356
Speaker 1: the chain of command. Remember, with this letter from Pershing,

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00:30:33,836 --> 00:30:36,196
Speaker 1: they had the evidence they needed to make their case.

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00:30:37,156 --> 00:30:41,636
Speaker 1: Senator Schumer's office submitted a nearly thirteen hundred page request

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Speaker 1: to the military and support of Henry's Medal of Honor

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00:30:45,036 --> 00:30:49,436
Speaker 1: and launched a petition to build support. After decades of

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00:30:49,556 --> 00:30:54,156
Speaker 1: calls and advocacy, something broke through. Henry would have his

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00:30:54,196 --> 00:30:57,956
Speaker 1: Medal of Honor. His battle was finally coming to a close.

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00:31:00,276 --> 00:31:03,716
Speaker 1: Soldiers don't go into combat with the hopes of being celebrated.

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00:31:04,356 --> 00:31:08,676
Speaker 1: Soldiers sacrifice because it's what they do. They act on principle,

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00:31:09,356 --> 00:31:11,516
Speaker 1: maybe to stand for a country they love as it is,

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00:31:12,116 --> 00:31:14,716
Speaker 1: or fight for a country they hope it can become.

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Speaker 1: For Henry Johnson, that hope became a little closer to reality.

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Speaker 1: Almost a century after his bravery in France and his

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Speaker 1: battles on the home front. On Jine's second twenty fifteen,

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Speaker 1: President Barack Obama awarded Henry his Medal of Honor.

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Speaker 4: America can't change what happened to Henry Johnson. We can't

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00:31:37,076 --> 00:31:40,076
Speaker 4: change what happened to too many soldiers like him who

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00:31:40,116 --> 00:31:43,356
Speaker 4: went uncelebrated because our nation judged them by the color

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00:31:43,396 --> 00:31:47,036
Speaker 4: of their skin and not the content of their character.

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Speaker 4: But we can do our best to make it right.

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00:31:50,276 --> 00:31:53,636
Speaker 4: And today, ninety seven years after his extraordinary acts of

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Speaker 4: courage and selflessness, I'm proud to award him the Medal

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Speaker 4: of Honor.

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Speaker 1: That night in the trenches back in nineteen eighteen, Henry

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Speaker 1: fought hand to hand so that his brother in arms

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00:32:05,436 --> 00:32:08,916
Speaker 1: wasn't taken prisoner. When he got home. He fought to

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Speaker 1: make sure that none of his comrades would be prisoners

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Speaker 1: of a society that sought to keep them down. They

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00:32:15,236 --> 00:32:18,956
Speaker 1: called him black death, but I don't think black or

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00:32:19,036 --> 00:32:21,836
Speaker 1: death should be the first words we think of when

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Speaker 1: we think of Henry Johnson. I prefer hell Fighter. Medal

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Speaker 1: of Honor. Stories of Courage is written by Meredith Rollins

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00:32:46,476 --> 00:32:50,516
Speaker 1: and produced by Meredith Rollins, Constanza Galardo, and Izzy Carter.

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00:32:51,236 --> 00:32:54,236
Speaker 1: The show is edited by Ben Daph Haffrey, Sound design

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00:32:54,356 --> 00:32:59,036
Speaker 1: and additional music by Jake Gorski, recording engineering by Nina Lawrence,

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00:32:59,476 --> 00:33:03,996
Speaker 1: fact checking by Arthur Gombert's original music by Eric Phillips.

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Speaker 1: Special thanks to Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri for

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00:33:08,236 --> 00:33:12,796
Speaker 1: sharing archive material from the documentary Men of Bronze by

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00:33:12,836 --> 00:33:15,716
Speaker 1: William Miles. And if you want to learn more about

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00:33:15,756 --> 00:33:19,156
Speaker 1: our Medal of Honor recipients, follow us on Instagram and Twitter.

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Speaker 1: We'll be sharing photos and videos of the heroes featured

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00:33:22,716 --> 00:33:25,316
Speaker 1: on the show. We'd also love to hear from you

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00:33:25,916 --> 00:33:28,396
Speaker 1: dm us with a story about a courageous veteran in

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00:33:28,476 --> 00:33:31,436
Speaker 1: your life. If you don't know a veteran, we would

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00:33:31,476 --> 00:33:34,836
Speaker 1: love to hear a story of how courage was contagious

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Speaker 1: in your own life. You can find us at Pushkinbods.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Malcolm Gampo