Speaker 1: Pushkin Hello.
Speaker 2: Hello.
Speaker 1: Before we get on with our show, I want you
Speaker 1: to know that your Pushkin Plus subscription grants you early
Speaker 1: access to Medal of Honor episodes one week before they
Speaker 1: were released to the public. That's one week of exclusive access.
Speaker 1: If you want to listen to more episodes a week
Speaker 1: before they're widely available, sign up for Pushkin Plus on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts or by visiting Pushkin, dot Fm, slash Plus.
Speaker 1: Now onto the episode. It was a clear day in
Speaker 1: New York City, February nineteen nineteen. The winter sun shone
Speaker 1: down warmly on masters of people lining both sides of
Speaker 1: Fifth Avenue. The parade route was seven miles long, and
Speaker 1: they were cheering crowds along every inch of it. People
Speaker 1: were john for a peak of thousands of soldiers who
Speaker 1: were marching uptown in perfect military formation. These men were
Speaker 1: just back from the most apocalyptic conflict the world had
Speaker 1: ever seen, World War One, the Great War, as they
Speaker 1: called it back then. The men were wearing dark wool
Speaker 1: uniforms and steel helmets. The bayonets of their rifles gleamed
Speaker 1: in the sun. Some of the men were shell shocked,
Speaker 1: some were exhausted. All of them were grateful to have
Speaker 1: made it back home, and all the men were black.
Speaker 1: They were known as the Harlem Hell Fighters, the three
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty ninth Infantry Regiment of the United States Army.
Speaker 1: This parade was their triumphant return to New York City,
Speaker 1: the city that had given them their unofficial name. In
Speaker 1: nineteen nineteen, troops were still segregated. Discrimination wasn't confined to
Speaker 1: the Jim Crow South. It reached all the way to
Speaker 1: the trenches on the European Front. But the Harlem Hell
Speaker 1: Fighters were some of the most highly decorated soldiers in
Speaker 1: the Great War. They had seen one hundred and ninety
Speaker 1: one days of combat, the longest of any regiment, and
Speaker 1: they had never had a man taken prisoner or lost
Speaker 1: a foot of ground. There were more than two thousand
Speaker 1: Harlem Hell Fighters in that parade, all them heroes, but
Speaker 1: as one in particular that I want to tell you about.
Speaker 1: His name was Henry Johnson, but as he rode past,
Speaker 1: the spectators called out to him by his nickname Black Death.
Speaker 1: Of all the Harlem Hell Fighters, Henry Johnson had made
Speaker 1: the biggest impression back home in the trenches of France.
Speaker 1: In the dark of night. He had single handedly taken
Speaker 1: on an invading enemy force. He had survived twenty one
Speaker 1: near fatal wounds, and he had rescued another wounded soldier
Speaker 1: who the Germans were trying to take prisoner. Every person
Speaker 1: at that parade knew Henry Johnson's story made it back
Speaker 1: to the US. Long before he did. Henry was featured
Speaker 1: on army recruitment posters and advertisements. He was profiled in
Speaker 1: newspapers and magazines. Out of a fighting force of millions,
Speaker 1: Henry Johnson had become one of the most famous soldiers
Speaker 1: in the entire war. Henry rolled up this avenue in
Speaker 1: an open topped cadillac. He couldn't march with the rest
Speaker 1: of the troops. His foot had been destroyed in the battle.
Speaker 1: It was being held together by a metal plate. He
Speaker 1: waved and smiled as the crowds shouted his name. At
Speaker 1: that moment, Henry was the most famous person in New
Speaker 1: York City. But only ten years later Henry Johnson would
Speaker 1: die poor and broken, and soon enough his story would
Speaker 1: be nearly forgotten. The Battle of Henry Johnson might have
Speaker 1: started in France, but he kept going long after the war.
Speaker 1: It went on, in fact, for ninety seven years until finally,
Speaker 1: one of the most famous soldiers of World War I
Speaker 1: would be awarded our country's highest recognition for courage, the
Speaker 1: Medal of Honor, him Malcolm Gladwell. And this is Medal
Speaker 1: of Honor Stories of Courage. The Medal of Honor is
Speaker 1: the highest military decoration in the United States. It's awarded
Speaker 1: for gallantry and bravery in combat at the risk of life,
Speaker 1: above and beyond the call of duty. Each candidate must
Speaker 1: be approved all the way up the chain of command,
Speaker 1: from the supervisory officer in the field to the White House.
Speaker 1: This show is about those heroes, what they did, what
Speaker 1: it meant, and what their stories tell us about the
Speaker 1: nature of courage and sacrifice today. The never ending battle
Speaker 1: of Henry Johnson. Let's start with the Harlem hell Fighters.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's there in the name, right, total badasses.
Speaker 1: Other regiments have nicknames like the Rock of the Marne,
Speaker 1: the Liberators, the puzzlingly named Armorators, or my personal favorite,
Speaker 1: the nickname for the one hundred and first Airborne Division,
Speaker 1: which at some point during World War II became known
Speaker 1: as the Battered Bastards of Best Doin. But to understand
Speaker 1: Henry Johnson, you first have to understand the Harlem hell Fighters.
Speaker 1: They started out as the fifteenth Infantry of the New
Speaker 1: York National Guard. At the time, they were the only
Speaker 1: black regiment in New York State. When the US went
Speaker 1: to war in April nineteen seventeen, men rushed to join
Speaker 1: the fifteenth. They came from across New York, but the
Speaker 1: vast majority of them were from Harlem. There wasn't a
Speaker 1: draft yet, they didn't have to go to war. They
Speaker 1: wanted to go. All of them were volunteers, including Henry Johnson.
Speaker 1: He was small, a slight man with a sweet disposition.
Speaker 1: He had a massive smile and wore his army issue
Speaker 1: cap at a rakish tilt to the side. He almost
Speaker 1: hadn't met the physical requirements to enlist. You had to
Speaker 1: be five foot four, and he was barely that. But
Speaker 1: he was resourceful and he was tough. As his wife,
Speaker 1: Edna Jackson would say, Henry wasn't big, but oh boy,
Speaker 1: he can go some. Like a lot of the thirty
Speaker 1: six hundred men of the fifteenth Infantry, Henry saw the
Speaker 1: military as a chance to serve his country and have
Speaker 1: steady work. It was risky, but if he survived, it
Speaker 1: could mean a better life, so he joined up. Back
Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies, a documentary crew tracked down one
Speaker 1: of the last surviving Harlem hell Fighters, a guy named
Speaker 1: Melville Morris. He talked about the pride they all had
Speaker 1: in the fifteenth.
Speaker 2: Every man felt he was in the best squad, in
Speaker 2: the best regiment of the whole game in United States.
Speaker 1: They set sail for France in the fall of nineteen seventeen,
Speaker 1: but when they got there, instead of grenades and tanks,
Speaker 1: they were handed shovels and wheelbarrows. The American Expeditionary Forces,
Speaker 1: under the command of General John Pershing had no intention
Speaker 1: of sending the fifteenth into battle. Instead, they would work
Speaker 1: as stevedores, manual laborers. They were signed to lay railroad tracks.
Speaker 1: Turns out Jim Crobb had followed the hell Fighters all
Speaker 1: the way to Europe.
Speaker 3: And General Persian said, there had no fighting blacks in
Speaker 3: this war.
Speaker 2: We train them in the stevedores.
Speaker 3: Or send you back home. Were set downs on old
Speaker 3: ships and do all kinds of details, but not fight
Speaker 3: because Persian wanted he didn't want no puddles in his
Speaker 3: division there or what lily white.
Speaker 1: The fifteenth were trained to fight, and they knew they
Speaker 1: could make a difference. They also knew what fighting would mean,
Speaker 1: not just the war, but afterwards, when they went back
Speaker 1: to the United States. A lieutenant from the fifteenth wrote
Speaker 1: home from France to say, if we can't fight and
Speaker 1: die in this war as bravely as white men, then
Speaker 1: we don't deserve equality. But if we can do things
Speaker 1: at the front, if we can make ourselves felt, if
Speaker 1: we can make America really proud, then it will be
Speaker 1: the biggest possible step towards our equalization as citizens. Henry
Speaker 1: had worked as a baggage handler in Albany before the war.
Speaker 1: He was strong, he had grown up in hard scrabble
Speaker 1: North Carolina. He knew adversity, and he was deeply proud
Speaker 1: to be an American soldier. Being kept out of the
Speaker 1: fighting wasn't just frustrating, it was infuriating. And then in
Speaker 1: March of nineteen eighteen, the fifteenth Infantry got their chance.
Speaker 1: The French army was at its breaking point. They'd been
Speaker 1: on the front lines for three years and lost more
Speaker 1: than a million men. Look to the soldiers of the
Speaker 1: fifteenth and figured, the white Americans don't want to fight
Speaker 1: with him, so maybe we can so they requested their service.
Speaker 1: The fifteenth was quickly renamed the three hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: ninth Infantry Regiment of the United States Army, and they
Speaker 1: went off to join the French. This, by the way,
Speaker 1: was pretty much unheard of. The US military did not
Speaker 1: lend out soldiers, but loaning the hell Fighters solved a problem.
Speaker 1: General Pershing wouldn't have to worry about keeping his black
Speaker 1: and white soldiers apart. Plus, it was a nice thing
Speaker 1: for an ally to do, and as an extra neighborly act,
Speaker 1: his staff sent their French liaison a document titled Secret
Speaker 1: Information concerning Black American Troops. It warned about the dangers
Speaker 1: of relying on quote unquote inferior black soldiers. It noted
Speaker 1: that their quote vices were a quote constant menace, and
Speaker 1: it asked the French not to treat the black soldiers
Speaker 1: as equal warning against ea with them or even shaking
Speaker 1: their hands otherwise, the document explained the men might expect
Speaker 1: the same treatment when they got back to America. But
Speaker 1: the French welcomed the newly christened three hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: ninth Infantry into their army as fast as they possibly could.
Speaker 1: In that nineteen seventies documentary I mentioned, you can hear
Speaker 1: how excited Melville was about all things French.
Speaker 2: We got French helmets, French canteens, French rifles, and instead
Speaker 2: of water canteen, where should French wine? And we joined
Speaker 2: the fourth French Army.
Speaker 1: They were sent to the Argonne Forest in the northeastern
Speaker 1: corner of France to join the beleaguered French troops in
Speaker 1: the trenches. And when they got there, it turns out
Speaker 1: that three hundred and sixty ninth weren't just ready to fight,
Speaker 1: they were great at it, and soon enough, thanks to
Speaker 1: their tenacity and their skill, they had earned their new name,
Speaker 1: the Harlem hell Fighters. Back home, though, the truth of
Speaker 1: what they face as black soldiers, that white American soldiers
Speaker 1: did not want to serve alongside them, was being very
Speaker 1: carefully hidden. We'll be back in a minute. In the
Speaker 1: early hours of May fifteenth, nineteen eighteen, Henry Johnson and
Speaker 1: his friend and fellow hell Fighter Needham Roberts, were sent
Speaker 1: to a listening post in No Man's Land, the area
Speaker 1: between the French trenches and the German position picture a
Speaker 1: wide swath of desolate terrain parked with craters and burnt trees.
Speaker 1: The French were holding the western side in deep trenches
Speaker 1: rimmed with barbed wire. The Germans were holding the east.
Speaker 1: Henry and Needham's job was to stay up through the
Speaker 1: night and be the eyes and ears of their platoon.
Speaker 1: If they heard or saw anything suspicious, they were to
Speaker 1: alert the rest of the troops. The hell fighters had
Speaker 1: seen two months of action, the Germans had seen three years.
Speaker 1: They'd become experts at raiding trenches, coming by surprise, killing,
Speaker 1: taking soldiers prisoner, and pumping them for intelligence. That night,
Speaker 1: everyone was on edge. They were sure a raiding party
Speaker 1: was going to come. So sure a French lieutenant ordered
Speaker 1: Henry and Needham back to safety. Henry, as he told
Speaker 1: reporters later, wasn't having it. Lieutenant, He said, I'm an
Speaker 1: American and I never retreat. Henry and Needham stood watch
Speaker 1: all through the pitch black night. Their ears were tuned
Speaker 1: to everything around them, the wind whistling through no man's land,
Speaker 1: a rustle in the leaves. Then at two or three
Speaker 1: in the morning, they heard an ominous gnawing noise. Crunch, crunch, crunch.
Speaker 1: It was the sound of wire cutters. Suddenly, an enemy
Speaker 1: flare that the dark. The Germans had arrived. Grenades exploded,
Speaker 1: and bullets cut through the night. Air Shrapnel tore through
Speaker 1: Henry and Needham's uniforms their skin. Henry threw grenades of
Speaker 1: his own, his heart racing, he shouldered his rifle and
Speaker 1: started shooting. Needham, meanwhile, had been wounded in the arm
Speaker 1: and hip, and he lost consciousness. Henry was fighting alone.
Speaker 1: In an instant, the Germans were on top of them.
Speaker 1: Henry couldn't see how many ten twenty. He realized with
Speaker 1: horror that they were going to drag need Him away.
Speaker 1: The hell Fighters hadn't yet let a man be captured
Speaker 1: as a prisoner. They prided themselves on that he had
Speaker 1: to keep them from taking Needham. Henry had fired all
Speaker 1: the rounds in his rifle, and when he went to
Speaker 1: reload it, it jammed unusable, so he turned his rifle
Speaker 1: around and swung it wildly. Alone and mobbed by the enemy,
Speaker 1: he beat back the Germans until the butt of his
Speaker 1: rifle broke. Then he remembered his bolo knife. If you
Speaker 1: don't know what a bolo knife, let me put it
Speaker 1: this way. You don't cut butter with it. Nine to
Speaker 1: fourteen inches long, with a razor sharp blade along one side.
Speaker 1: Henry swung the knife and took down one enemy's soldier.
Speaker 1: Then another shots rang out. Henry was hit in the
Speaker 1: right forearm, right hip, and left leg, but he kept stabbing.
Speaker 1: He swung his knife till the Germans turned and ran
Speaker 1: into the night. He slashed and thrust until he was
Speaker 1: sure his friend was safe. Henry, as his wife Edna knew,
Speaker 1: could go so he'd lost a lot of blood. He
Speaker 1: struggled to stay conscious. He just couldn't, and as he
Speaker 1: sank to the ground, Henry hurled one last grenade, hitting
Speaker 1: and killing an enemy's soldier. As he fled, reinforcements reached
Speaker 1: the listening post a few minutes later. Melville remembers it
Speaker 1: Henry had been wounded twenty one times.
Speaker 2: Well, he refused to die and took Johnson and Roberts.
Speaker 2: We finally got out there in the morning, dragged their
Speaker 2: bodies back. They weren't dead and both lived through it.
Speaker 1: The next morning, as the two recovered in the hospital,
Speaker 1: their commanding officers surveyed the path of the Germans retreat.
Speaker 1: His captain Arthur Little wrote, quote, we trailed the course
Speaker 1: with the greatest of ease, by pulls of blood, blood
Speaker 1: soaked bandages, and blood smeared logs with the routed party
Speaker 1: had rested. They also discovered that the raiding party had
Speaker 1: left behind a small but very valuable collection of weapons
Speaker 1: and intelligence. They deduced that as many as twenty four
Speaker 1: Germans had been on the scene, yet Henry had held
Speaker 1: them off in hand to hand combat without a working firearm.
Speaker 1: In the dark, he kept them from crossing the French line,
Speaker 1: and just a few minutes of fighting he had defeated
Speaker 1: an entire raiding party. That's why when Henry came back home,
Speaker 1: everyone in America knew his name. The day after the battle,
Speaker 1: three American reporters arrived at the scene. While General Pershing
Speaker 1: had restricted news about American military operations overseas, the French
Speaker 1: had no such rules, and the three hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: ninth was, after all, embedded with the French. The journalists
Speaker 1: raised to speak to Needham and Henry at the hospital.
Speaker 1: They sent their reports back to the States, where people
Speaker 1: were desperate for some news, any news of progress in
Speaker 1: the war. Henry was happy to talk to the reporters
Speaker 1: about that night and that Bolo knife. Each slash meant
Speaker 1: something believe me, he told them, I just fought my life.
Speaker 1: A rabbit would have done that. His actions, wrote the
Speaker 1: Saturday Evening Post, were proof that the color of a
Speaker 1: man's skin has nothing to do with the color of
Speaker 1: his soul. Two days after the attack, the French sixteenth Division,
Speaker 1: which commanded the hell Fighters, officially recognized the actions of
Speaker 1: Needham and Henry. Both received the French Quadiguere, the country's
Speaker 1: highest military honor. They were some of the first U.
Speaker 1: S soldiers ever to earn this distinction. Henry's medal also
Speaker 1: included the Bronze Palm for extraordinary valor, and that's when
Speaker 1: he got his nickname Black Death. It took two days
Speaker 1: for the French to award Henry's courage. It would take
Speaker 1: decades for the United States to do the same. Henry
Speaker 1: spent the rest of the war in a French hospital
Speaker 1: recovering from his injuries. His foot had been destroyed, and
Speaker 1: the army awarded him the Wounded Chevron, an acknowledgment of
Speaker 1: his disabilities. They also upgraded his rank from private to sergeant.
Speaker 1: But while the French were willing to honor his courage
Speaker 1: and valor with a medal, the American military would not,
Speaker 1: even though by the end of the war in the
Speaker 1: winter of nineteen eighteen, the Harlem hell Fighters had served
Speaker 1: longer in the trench, which is than any other American regiment,
Speaker 1: and they had suffered the most losses, with fifteen hundred casualties.
Speaker 1: A reporter from a local paper found Henry at the
Speaker 1: pier as he got off the steamer coming home to
Speaker 1: New York and described him this way. His lip is
Speaker 1: scarred by a knife slash, his head holds a dent
Speaker 1: made by a rifle butt. In his hand is the
Speaker 1: welt of a bayonet's slash, and a silver plate keeps
Speaker 1: his left foot in place. He got his heroes welcome.
Speaker 1: Henry rode in a place of honor in the parade
Speaker 1: up Fifth Avenue, carrying a bouquet of lilies. Melville remembered it, well.
Speaker 2: Everybody wanted to see Henry Johnson. Everybody wanted to shakers here.
Speaker 2: That's one day that it wasn't a sighted bit.
Speaker 1: Of prejudice in New York City. Henry was featured on
Speaker 1: an ad for war stamps. It read Henry Johnson licked
Speaker 1: a dozen Germans. How many stamps have you licked? But
Speaker 1: Henry was exhausted, physically broken. When he got off the
Speaker 1: train in Albany, finally home, he was greeted by New
Speaker 1: York Governor L Smith and a group of cheering fans.
Speaker 1: He was grateful, of course, but pay attention to what
Speaker 1: he said to the reporters quote, I am very proud
Speaker 1: of all of you, but I am sick and tired.
Speaker 1: I just want to say that I am glad to
Speaker 1: get back home. He didn't want to be celebrated, but
Speaker 1: the welcoming party wouldn't take no for an answer, and
Speaker 1: Henry was paraded around the city and hustled to get
Speaker 1: another fancy dinner. Governor Smith promised to name a street
Speaker 1: after him, and then the Attorney General's office started raising
Speaker 1: funds to build a new house for Henry too, but
Speaker 1: those things came at a price. He was asked to
Speaker 1: speak before the New York State Senate Judiciary Committee, and
Speaker 1: he had terrible stage fright, sweating and stammering. Afterwards, the
Speaker 1: papers announced hero flunks in speech effort, and maybe because
Speaker 1: the real Henry wasn't so keen on public appearances, fake
Speaker 1: Henry Johnson's started popping up to take his place and
Speaker 1: make money off it. Two fake Henry's were arrested in
Speaker 1: Albany selling photographs. Henry asked the judge to go easy
Speaker 1: on them and offered to lend the impersonator's money if
Speaker 1: they needed it. The newspapers noted that quote, he doesn't
Speaker 1: care for the honors himself, but he hates to have
Speaker 1: the public imposed upon Then another fake Henry appeared in
Speaker 1: Saint Louis before thousands of fans and the city's mayor.
Speaker 1: That one was hauled off to jail. So now the
Speaker 1: pressure was on the real Henry to get out there
Speaker 1: and speak for himself. The organizers of the Saint Louis
Speaker 1: event pleaded with him to come and speak, and, maybe
Speaker 1: because he felt badly that they had been deceived, or
Speaker 1: maybe because he needed the money, he went to be
Speaker 1: the star attraction in an evening celebrating black contributions to
Speaker 1: the war effort. It was held in the Colosseum, the
Speaker 1: largest and most luxurious venue in all of Saint Louis.
Speaker 1: Five thousand people gathered to hear him tell his story.
Speaker 1: He was walking into an atmosphere bubbling with racial tension
Speaker 1: in Saint Louis and across the country. Lynchings were in
Speaker 1: the news constantly. The klu Kluck's Klan was on the rise,
Speaker 1: not just in the South, but stretching the whole width
Speaker 1: of the United States, from New Jersey to Oregon. So
Speaker 1: the evening of Friday, March twenty eighth, nineteen nineteen was
Speaker 1: meant to be a joyful one, but also to walk
Speaker 1: a very thin line on the question of race. Dramatic oratory,
Speaker 1: heroic stories, a tribute to the sacrifice of a community,
Speaker 1: and a small request for rights. It started out the
Speaker 1: usual way. First there was a welcome from the mayor
Speaker 1: of Saint Louis that was followed by speeches from a
Speaker 1: Missouri senator, the president of the city's board of aldermen,
Speaker 1: a congressman, and more. Then a series of black preachers spoke,
Speaker 1: and one, a minister for Mississippi, called for the enfranchisement
Speaker 1: of black voters in his home state. The man who
Speaker 1: is good enough to carry a musket in no Man's
Speaker 1: Land is good enough to carry a ballot in the
Speaker 1: state of Mississippi, he said. Another preacher made the case
Speaker 1: that black people should be included in the new wave
Speaker 1: of post war industry, each one of them asking politely
Speaker 1: for those things that were supposed to be their ineligenable rights,
Speaker 1: not being too controversial. And then it was Henry's turn.
Speaker 1: He was supposed to get up on stage and smile
Speaker 1: and wave, just like he did during that parade. We
Speaker 1: don't have Henry's personal letters or his diaries. We can't
Speaker 1: know exactly what he was thinking, but here's a clue.
Speaker 1: He kept the dignitaries and the politicians waiting on the
Speaker 1: stage to begin the event for an hour, the mayor,
Speaker 1: the senator, five thousand people, all them waiting. What was
Speaker 1: he doing pacing in the hall, back and forth, back
Speaker 1: and forth, thinking about something. Maybe he still had terrible
Speaker 1: stage fright. Maybe he was worn out from being carted
Speaker 1: around like a curiosity. Or maybe what he was exhausted
Speaker 1: by was all this politeness and forbearance. Maybe he was
Speaker 1: sick of pleading for equality from the country the Harlem
Speaker 1: hell fighters had been willing to fight and die for.
Speaker 1: We can't know, but what happened next changed the trajectory
Speaker 1: of Henry Johnson's life. He made his triumphant entrance, hobbling
Speaker 1: on his shattered foot. The crowd went absolutely nuts. He
Speaker 1: stepped to the mic alone like he'd been that night
Speaker 1: in no man's land, and whatever upbeat, happy thing he
Speaker 1: was meant to say, he didn't say it. His tone
Speaker 1: was bitter. Equal treatment in the war was a lie.
Speaker 1: He said, there was no racial friendship. In the trenches.
Speaker 1: Black troops suffered prejudicial treatment from white American soldiers, and
Speaker 1: those white soldiers weren't just bigots, they were cowards. Henry
Speaker 1: told the colosseum that a white major had said, and
Speaker 1: I'm quoting here, send the Negro troops to the front.
Speaker 1: There are two darn many negroes in New York anyway.
Speaker 1: And then Henry added, if I were a white man
Speaker 1: in Albany, I would have so much metal that I
Speaker 1: would be the next governor of New York State. The
Speaker 1: audience was stunned. Some uniform black officers left the stage
Speaker 1: in protest. Others in the audience cheered. It was complete chaos.
Speaker 1: What they all felt was shock. This guy was famous,
Speaker 1: which in America means you're supposed to be happy, right
Speaker 1: that did say this and say it in front of
Speaker 1: white dignitaries. It simply was done. But Henry was used
Speaker 1: to fighting alone. The Saint Louis Argus, the preeminent black
Speaker 1: paper in the city reported on the evening with horror.
Speaker 1: Remember times were precarious for black people, being outspoken like
Speaker 1: Henry was a risk to the community's safety. The front
Speaker 1: page blared Henry Johnson's speech insults Colosseum crowd. Missus Victoria
Speaker 1: Clay Hayley, who had brought Henry to Saint Louis for
Speaker 1: the event, swore, quote, of course we didn't know what
Speaker 1: the man was going to say. We wouldn't have had
Speaker 1: him come here to insult the white people of our
Speaker 1: city for anything. He did us more harm than good,
Speaker 1: and no one was more at risk of harm than
Speaker 1: Henry himself. A group of angry Marines visited him at
Speaker 1: his hotel, demanding that he'd take back what he had
Speaker 1: said about cowardice among white troops, and the threats kept coming.
Speaker 1: Henry escaped the city that evening in disguise. The military
Speaker 1: Mary wanted nothing more to do with him. A federal
Speaker 1: warrant was issued for his arrest, based on the complaint
Speaker 1: of white soldiers who had said that Henry had quote
Speaker 1: disparaged their valor unquote. The technical charge on the warrant
Speaker 1: wearing the uniform after a prescribed time, whatever that means
Speaker 1: The promised house in Albody never materialized. No street was
Speaker 1: named after him. The most famous soldier in the world.
Speaker 1: I'm going to bet you've never heard of him, but
Speaker 1: I want you to think about that night. We tell
Speaker 1: stories about war because the battlefield intensifies bravery. But that's
Speaker 1: not the only place we're brave. It turns out sometimes
Speaker 1: speaking of truth is the bravest and most dangerous act
Speaker 1: of all. The years that followed pushed Henry into obscurity.
Speaker 1: His marriage to Edna ended. He was permanently disabled by
Speaker 1: his battle wounds. Unable to find steady work, he was
Speaker 1: in and out of hospitals, and his tiny Army disability
Speaker 1: payment wasn't enough to live off of His health declined,
Speaker 1: he moved from Albany to Washington, d c. Then, in
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty nine, just ten years after that grand parade
Speaker 1: up Fifth Avenue, he passed away. He was only in
Speaker 1: his thirties. The cause of death was myocarditis, a weakening
Speaker 1: of the heart muscle. The papers covered his death in
Speaker 1: a minor way. He was buried at Arlington Cemetery. Once again,
Speaker 1: he was surrounded by black soldiers. The burial ground, like
Speaker 1: the military, was still segregated back then. The practice wouldn't
Speaker 1: end until nineteen forty eight. That might have been the
Speaker 1: end of Henry Johnson's story, his bravery in the trenches
Speaker 1: forever overshadowed by his bravery on that stage in Saint Louis.
Speaker 1: At least you could say he went down swinging. He
Speaker 1: insisted on being seen for who he was, Not a
Speaker 1: mythical soldier who licked a dozen Germans, but a man
Speaker 1: who was frustrated by the limitations of his country. And
Speaker 1: then that country turned away from him. But some people
Speaker 1: remembered years after Henry's actions in France. Teddy Roosevelt Junior,
Speaker 1: the son of the former president and the future Medal
Speaker 1: of Honor recipient himself, described Henry as one of the
Speaker 1: five bravest soldiers in the war. In the nineteen fifties,
Speaker 1: Langston Hughes, the great Black poet and playwright, considered writing
Speaker 1: a book about him. Then in the early nineteen seventies,
Speaker 1: a group of veterans of the three hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: ninth Regiment decided to push for more. Henry had been
Speaker 1: one of them. After all, we wanted to write a
Speaker 1: wrong they said, So they started a movement for Henry
Speaker 1: to get the recognition he deserved. Led by two Vietnam vets,
Speaker 1: the group started lobbying Congress. They brought local, state, and
Speaker 1: federal officials into the fight. Slowly, slowly, they made progress.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety one, a memorial to Henry was erected
Speaker 1: in Albany, and a section of the city's northern boulevard
Speaker 1: was renamed Henry Johnson Boulevard. Finally, he had a street
Speaker 1: named after him in his hometown, one long forgotten promise kept.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety six, President Bill Clinton posthumously awarded Henry
Speaker 1: Johnson the Purple Heart. In two thousand and two, the
Speaker 1: Army gave him their second highest military honor, the Distinguished
Speaker 1: Service Cross. Then Senator Chuck Schumer of New York threw
Speaker 1: his weight behind the ultimate goal, recognizing Henry with the
Speaker 1: Medal of Honor. In twenty eleven, a Schumer stafford discovered
Speaker 1: a long lost memo from General John Pershing, dated May
Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen, just after Henry's heroic stand. Even Pershing was
Speaker 1: impressed by Henry's actions, and he described them as quote
Speaker 1: a notable instance of bravery and devotion. A Medal of
Speaker 1: Honor recipient has to be approved all the way up
Speaker 1: the chain of command. Remember, with this letter from Pershing,
Speaker 1: they had the evidence they needed to make their case.
Speaker 1: Senator Schumer's office submitted a nearly thirteen hundred page request
Speaker 1: to the military and support of Henry's Medal of Honor
Speaker 1: and launched a petition to build support. After decades of
Speaker 1: calls and advocacy, something broke through. Henry would have his
Speaker 1: Medal of Honor. His battle was finally coming to a close.
Speaker 1: Soldiers don't go into combat with the hopes of being celebrated.
Speaker 1: Soldiers sacrifice because it's what they do. They act on principle,
Speaker 1: maybe to stand for a country they love as it is,
Speaker 1: or fight for a country they hope it can become.
Speaker 1: For Henry Johnson, that hope became a little closer to reality.
Speaker 1: Almost a century after his bravery in France and his
Speaker 1: battles on the home front. On Jine's second twenty fifteen,
Speaker 1: President Barack Obama awarded Henry his Medal of Honor.
Speaker 4: America can't change what happened to Henry Johnson. We can't
Speaker 4: change what happened to too many soldiers like him who
Speaker 4: went uncelebrated because our nation judged them by the color
Speaker 4: of their skin and not the content of their character.
Speaker 4: But we can do our best to make it right.
Speaker 4: And today, ninety seven years after his extraordinary acts of
Speaker 4: courage and selflessness, I'm proud to award him the Medal
Speaker 4: of Honor.
Speaker 1: That night in the trenches back in nineteen eighteen, Henry
Speaker 1: fought hand to hand so that his brother in arms
Speaker 1: wasn't taken prisoner. When he got home. He fought to
Speaker 1: make sure that none of his comrades would be prisoners
Speaker 1: of a society that sought to keep them down. They
Speaker 1: called him black death, but I don't think black or
Speaker 1: death should be the first words we think of when
Speaker 1: we think of Henry Johnson. I prefer hell Fighter. Medal
Speaker 1: of Honor. Stories of Courage is written by Meredith Rollins
Speaker 1: and produced by Meredith Rollins, Constanza Galardo, and Izzy Carter.
Speaker 1: The show is edited by Ben Daph Haffrey, Sound design
Speaker 1: and additional music by Jake Gorski, recording engineering by Nina Lawrence,
Speaker 1: fact checking by Arthur Gombert's original music by Eric Phillips.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri for
Speaker 1: sharing archive material from the documentary Men of Bronze by
Speaker 1: William Miles. And if you want to learn more about
Speaker 1: our Medal of Honor recipients, follow us on Instagram and Twitter.
Speaker 1: We'll be sharing photos and videos of the heroes featured
Speaker 1: on the show. We'd also love to hear from you
Speaker 1: dm us with a story about a courageous veteran in
Speaker 1: your life. If you don't know a veteran, we would
Speaker 1: love to hear a story of how courage was contagious
Speaker 1: in your own life. You can find us at Pushkinbods.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Malcolm Gampo