WEBVTT - The Never-ending Battle of Henry Johnson 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:18.876 Pushkin Hello. 0:00:18.916 --> 0:00:19.316 Hello. 0:00:19.396 --> 0:00:21.516 Before we get on with our show, I want you 0:00:21.596 --> 0:00:24.596 to know that your Pushkin Plus subscription grants you early 0:00:24.636 --> 0:00:28.436 access to Medal of Honor episodes one week before they 0:00:28.436 --> 0:00:32.636 were released to the public. That's one week of exclusive access. 0:00:32.956 --> 0:00:35.436 If you want to listen to more episodes a week 0:00:35.476 --> 0:00:39.196 before they're widely available, sign up for Pushkin Plus on 0:00:39.276 --> 0:00:44.476 Apple Podcasts or by visiting Pushkin, dot Fm, slash Plus. 0:00:45.196 --> 0:00:53.356 Now onto the episode. It was a clear day in 0:00:53.356 --> 0:00:57.796 New York City, February nineteen nineteen. The winter sun shone 0:00:57.836 --> 0:01:00.796 down warmly on masters of people lining both sides of 0:01:00.876 --> 0:01:05.476 Fifth Avenue. The parade route was seven miles long, and 0:01:05.516 --> 0:01:08.636 they were cheering crowds along every inch of it. People 0:01:08.636 --> 0:01:11.236 were john for a peak of thousands of soldiers who 0:01:11.236 --> 0:01:16.676 were marching uptown in perfect military formation. These men were 0:01:16.756 --> 0:01:19.956 just back from the most apocalyptic conflict the world had 0:01:20.036 --> 0:01:24.196 ever seen, World War One, the Great War, as they 0:01:24.276 --> 0:01:27.236 called it back then. The men were wearing dark wool 0:01:27.356 --> 0:01:31.236 uniforms and steel helmets. The bayonets of their rifles gleamed 0:01:31.276 --> 0:01:34.476 in the sun. Some of the men were shell shocked, 0:01:34.716 --> 0:01:37.956 some were exhausted. All of them were grateful to have 0:01:37.996 --> 0:01:41.836 made it back home, and all the men were black. 0:01:43.316 --> 0:01:46.076 They were known as the Harlem Hell Fighters, the three 0:01:46.156 --> 0:01:50.036 hundred and sixty ninth Infantry Regiment of the United States Army. 0:01:50.676 --> 0:01:53.996 This parade was their triumphant return to New York City, 0:01:54.236 --> 0:01:58.036 the city that had given them their unofficial name. In 0:01:58.076 --> 0:02:02.876 nineteen nineteen, troops were still segregated. Discrimination wasn't confined to 0:02:02.916 --> 0:02:05.516 the Jim Crow South. It reached all the way to 0:02:05.556 --> 0:02:09.316 the trenches on the European Front. But the Harlem Hell 0:02:09.396 --> 0:02:12.756 Fighters were some of the most highly decorated soldiers in 0:02:12.796 --> 0:02:15.916 the Great War. They had seen one hundred and ninety 0:02:15.916 --> 0:02:19.476 one days of combat, the longest of any regiment, and 0:02:19.556 --> 0:02:22.236 they had never had a man taken prisoner or lost 0:02:22.276 --> 0:02:26.076 a foot of ground. There were more than two thousand 0:02:26.116 --> 0:02:29.676 Harlem Hell Fighters in that parade, all them heroes, but 0:02:29.756 --> 0:02:32.316 as one in particular that I want to tell you about. 0:02:33.316 --> 0:02:36.116 His name was Henry Johnson, but as he rode past, 0:02:36.596 --> 0:02:41.156 the spectators called out to him by his nickname Black Death. 0:02:43.316 --> 0:02:46.676 Of all the Harlem Hell Fighters, Henry Johnson had made 0:02:46.716 --> 0:02:50.876 the biggest impression back home in the trenches of France. 0:02:51.036 --> 0:02:53.836 In the dark of night. He had single handedly taken 0:02:53.876 --> 0:02:58.316 on an invading enemy force. He had survived twenty one 0:02:58.596 --> 0:03:02.196 near fatal wounds, and he had rescued another wounded soldier 0:03:02.396 --> 0:03:05.876 who the Germans were trying to take prisoner. Every person 0:03:05.916 --> 0:03:09.556 at that parade knew Henry Johnson's story made it back 0:03:09.596 --> 0:03:12.756 to the US. Long before he did. Henry was featured 0:03:12.876 --> 0:03:16.756 on army recruitment posters and advertisements. He was profiled in 0:03:16.836 --> 0:03:21.396 newspapers and magazines. Out of a fighting force of millions, 0:03:21.636 --> 0:03:24.836 Henry Johnson had become one of the most famous soldiers 0:03:25.276 --> 0:03:29.636 in the entire war. Henry rolled up this avenue in 0:03:29.676 --> 0:03:32.716 an open topped cadillac. He couldn't march with the rest 0:03:32.756 --> 0:03:35.876 of the troops. His foot had been destroyed in the battle. 0:03:36.436 --> 0:03:39.276 It was being held together by a metal plate. He 0:03:39.356 --> 0:03:44.076 waved and smiled as the crowds shouted his name. At 0:03:44.076 --> 0:03:47.516 that moment, Henry was the most famous person in New 0:03:47.596 --> 0:03:52.556 York City. But only ten years later Henry Johnson would 0:03:52.556 --> 0:03:56.476 die poor and broken, and soon enough his story would 0:03:56.476 --> 0:03:59.996 be nearly forgotten. The Battle of Henry Johnson might have 0:04:00.076 --> 0:04:03.876 started in France, but he kept going long after the war. 0:04:04.516 --> 0:04:08.836 It went on, in fact, for ninety seven years until finally, 0:04:09.356 --> 0:04:11.556 one of the most famous soldiers of World War I 0:04:12.076 --> 0:04:16.316 would be awarded our country's highest recognition for courage, the 0:04:16.316 --> 0:04:23.476 Medal of Honor, him Malcolm Gladwell. And this is Medal 0:04:23.516 --> 0:04:26.996 of Honor Stories of Courage. The Medal of Honor is 0:04:26.996 --> 0:04:30.996 the highest military decoration in the United States. It's awarded 0:04:31.076 --> 0:04:35.236 for gallantry and bravery in combat at the risk of life, 0:04:35.276 --> 0:04:38.636 above and beyond the call of duty. Each candidate must 0:04:38.636 --> 0:04:40.796 be approved all the way up the chain of command, 0:04:41.036 --> 0:04:44.156 from the supervisory officer in the field to the White House. 0:04:45.236 --> 0:04:48.676 This show is about those heroes, what they did, what 0:04:48.756 --> 0:04:51.756 it meant, and what their stories tell us about the 0:04:51.876 --> 0:04:58.716 nature of courage and sacrifice today. The never ending battle 0:04:59.276 --> 0:05:11.596 of Henry Johnson. Let's start with the Harlem hell Fighters. 0:05:11.956 --> 0:05:14.756 I mean, it's there in the name, right, total badasses. 0:05:15.436 --> 0:05:18.676 Other regiments have nicknames like the Rock of the Marne, 0:05:19.036 --> 0:05:24.276 the Liberators, the puzzlingly named Armorators, or my personal favorite, 0:05:24.516 --> 0:05:26.836 the nickname for the one hundred and first Airborne Division, 0:05:26.996 --> 0:05:29.356 which at some point during World War II became known 0:05:29.356 --> 0:05:33.476 as the Battered Bastards of Best Doin. But to understand 0:05:33.476 --> 0:05:38.116 Henry Johnson, you first have to understand the Harlem hell Fighters. 0:05:39.076 --> 0:05:41.996 They started out as the fifteenth Infantry of the New 0:05:42.036 --> 0:05:44.876 York National Guard. At the time, they were the only 0:05:44.996 --> 0:05:48.516 black regiment in New York State. When the US went 0:05:48.556 --> 0:05:52.236 to war in April nineteen seventeen, men rushed to join 0:05:52.276 --> 0:05:55.716 the fifteenth. They came from across New York, but the 0:05:55.796 --> 0:05:59.356 vast majority of them were from Harlem. There wasn't a 0:05:59.436 --> 0:06:02.196 draft yet, they didn't have to go to war. They 0:06:02.276 --> 0:06:08.036 wanted to go. All of them were volunteers, including Henry Johnson. 0:06:09.116 --> 0:06:11.916 He was small, a slight man with a sweet disposition. 0:06:12.556 --> 0:06:15.196 He had a massive smile and wore his army issue 0:06:15.196 --> 0:06:18.676 cap at a rakish tilt to the side. He almost 0:06:18.916 --> 0:06:21.876 hadn't met the physical requirements to enlist. You had to 0:06:21.876 --> 0:06:24.876 be five foot four, and he was barely that. But 0:06:24.956 --> 0:06:29.076 he was resourceful and he was tough. As his wife, 0:06:29.196 --> 0:06:32.276 Edna Jackson would say, Henry wasn't big, but oh boy, 0:06:32.756 --> 0:06:35.876 he can go some. Like a lot of the thirty 0:06:35.916 --> 0:06:39.436 six hundred men of the fifteenth Infantry, Henry saw the 0:06:39.436 --> 0:06:42.436 military as a chance to serve his country and have 0:06:42.476 --> 0:06:46.356 steady work. It was risky, but if he survived, it 0:06:46.396 --> 0:06:49.956 could mean a better life, so he joined up. Back 0:06:49.956 --> 0:06:53.076 in the nineteen seventies, a documentary crew tracked down one 0:06:53.116 --> 0:06:56.396 of the last surviving Harlem hell Fighters, a guy named 0:06:56.556 --> 0:06:59.756 Melville Morris. He talked about the pride they all had 0:06:59.756 --> 0:07:00.516 in the fifteenth. 0:07:01.516 --> 0:07:05.356 Every man felt he was in the best squad, in 0:07:05.396 --> 0:07:09.116 the best regiment of the whole game in United States. 0:07:10.916 --> 0:07:13.876 They set sail for France in the fall of nineteen seventeen, 0:07:14.076 --> 0:07:17.196 but when they got there, instead of grenades and tanks, 0:07:17.596 --> 0:07:22.396 they were handed shovels and wheelbarrows. The American Expeditionary Forces, 0:07:22.596 --> 0:07:25.556 under the command of General John Pershing had no intention 0:07:25.916 --> 0:07:29.716 of sending the fifteenth into battle. Instead, they would work 0:07:29.716 --> 0:07:34.676 as stevedores, manual laborers. They were signed to lay railroad tracks. 0:07:35.396 --> 0:07:38.756 Turns out Jim Crobb had followed the hell Fighters all 0:07:38.796 --> 0:07:39.916 the way to Europe. 0:07:40.036 --> 0:07:44.196 And General Persian said, there had no fighting blacks in 0:07:44.276 --> 0:07:44.836 this war. 0:07:45.956 --> 0:07:48.356 We train them in the stevedores. 0:07:48.556 --> 0:07:51.996 Or send you back home. Were set downs on old 0:07:52.036 --> 0:07:55.036 ships and do all kinds of details, but not fight 0:07:55.476 --> 0:07:59.116 because Persian wanted he didn't want no puddles in his 0:07:59.196 --> 0:08:01.796 division there or what lily white. 0:08:02.076 --> 0:08:04.836 The fifteenth were trained to fight, and they knew they 0:08:04.836 --> 0:08:07.836 could make a difference. They also knew what fighting would mean, 0:08:08.516 --> 0:08:11.676 not just the war, but afterwards, when they went back 0:08:11.676 --> 0:08:15.076 to the United States. A lieutenant from the fifteenth wrote 0:08:15.076 --> 0:08:18.516 home from France to say, if we can't fight and 0:08:18.596 --> 0:08:21.236 die in this war as bravely as white men, then 0:08:21.276 --> 0:08:24.556 we don't deserve equality. But if we can do things 0:08:24.556 --> 0:08:27.956 at the front, if we can make ourselves felt, if 0:08:27.996 --> 0:08:30.876 we can make America really proud, then it will be 0:08:30.916 --> 0:08:37.796 the biggest possible step towards our equalization as citizens. Henry 0:08:37.796 --> 0:08:40.756 had worked as a baggage handler in Albany before the war. 0:08:40.956 --> 0:08:43.796 He was strong, he had grown up in hard scrabble 0:08:43.836 --> 0:08:47.716 North Carolina. He knew adversity, and he was deeply proud 0:08:47.756 --> 0:08:50.796 to be an American soldier. Being kept out of the 0:08:50.796 --> 0:08:56.396 fighting wasn't just frustrating, it was infuriating. And then in 0:08:56.436 --> 0:09:00.436 March of nineteen eighteen, the fifteenth Infantry got their chance. 0:09:01.436 --> 0:09:04.476 The French army was at its breaking point. They'd been 0:09:04.516 --> 0:09:07.076 on the front lines for three years and lost more 0:09:07.116 --> 0:09:10.076 than a million men. Look to the soldiers of the 0:09:10.076 --> 0:09:13.316 fifteenth and figured, the white Americans don't want to fight 0:09:13.356 --> 0:09:17.076 with him, so maybe we can so they requested their service. 0:09:17.396 --> 0:09:20.516 The fifteenth was quickly renamed the three hundred and sixty 0:09:20.596 --> 0:09:23.996 ninth Infantry Regiment of the United States Army, and they 0:09:24.036 --> 0:09:27.356 went off to join the French. This, by the way, 0:09:27.476 --> 0:09:30.236 was pretty much unheard of. The US military did not 0:09:30.476 --> 0:09:34.636 lend out soldiers, but loaning the hell Fighters solved a problem. 0:09:35.036 --> 0:09:37.796 General Pershing wouldn't have to worry about keeping his black 0:09:37.876 --> 0:09:41.676 and white soldiers apart. Plus, it was a nice thing 0:09:41.716 --> 0:09:44.916 for an ally to do, and as an extra neighborly act, 0:09:45.236 --> 0:09:49.476 his staff sent their French liaison a document titled Secret 0:09:49.556 --> 0:09:54.916 Information concerning Black American Troops. It warned about the dangers 0:09:54.916 --> 0:09:59.276 of relying on quote unquote inferior black soldiers. It noted 0:09:59.476 --> 0:10:04.156 that their quote vices were a quote constant menace, and 0:10:04.236 --> 0:10:06.916 it asked the French not to treat the black soldiers 0:10:06.996 --> 0:10:10.596 as equal warning against ea with them or even shaking 0:10:10.636 --> 0:10:14.396 their hands otherwise, the document explained the men might expect 0:10:14.436 --> 0:10:19.436 the same treatment when they got back to America. But 0:10:19.476 --> 0:10:22.716 the French welcomed the newly christened three hundred and sixty 0:10:22.796 --> 0:10:26.836 ninth Infantry into their army as fast as they possibly could. 0:10:27.196 --> 0:10:30.636 In that nineteen seventies documentary I mentioned, you can hear 0:10:30.676 --> 0:10:33.756 how excited Melville was about all things French. 0:10:34.756 --> 0:10:38.596 We got French helmets, French canteens, French rifles, and instead 0:10:38.636 --> 0:10:42.796 of water canteen, where should French wine? And we joined 0:10:43.156 --> 0:10:44.996 the fourth French Army. 0:10:45.196 --> 0:10:47.636 They were sent to the Argonne Forest in the northeastern 0:10:47.676 --> 0:10:50.516 corner of France to join the beleaguered French troops in 0:10:50.556 --> 0:10:53.276 the trenches. And when they got there, it turns out 0:10:53.356 --> 0:10:55.916 that three hundred and sixty ninth weren't just ready to fight, 0:10:56.316 --> 0:11:00.116 they were great at it, and soon enough, thanks to 0:11:00.116 --> 0:11:03.356 their tenacity and their skill, they had earned their new name, 0:11:03.836 --> 0:11:08.316 the Harlem hell Fighters. Back home, though, the truth of 0:11:08.316 --> 0:11:11.796 what they face as black soldiers, that white American soldiers 0:11:11.996 --> 0:11:15.116 did not want to serve alongside them, was being very 0:11:15.156 --> 0:11:31.036 carefully hidden. We'll be back in a minute. In the 0:11:31.116 --> 0:11:35.156 early hours of May fifteenth, nineteen eighteen, Henry Johnson and 0:11:35.236 --> 0:11:39.036 his friend and fellow hell Fighter Needham Roberts, were sent 0:11:39.116 --> 0:11:42.156 to a listening post in No Man's Land, the area 0:11:42.196 --> 0:11:46.436 between the French trenches and the German position picture a 0:11:46.476 --> 0:11:50.916 wide swath of desolate terrain parked with craters and burnt trees. 0:11:51.596 --> 0:11:55.076 The French were holding the western side in deep trenches 0:11:55.156 --> 0:11:58.596 rimmed with barbed wire. The Germans were holding the east. 0:11:59.556 --> 0:12:01.876 Henry and Needham's job was to stay up through the 0:12:01.956 --> 0:12:04.556 night and be the eyes and ears of their platoon. 0:12:05.396 --> 0:12:08.676 If they heard or saw anything suspicious, they were to 0:12:08.716 --> 0:12:12.476 alert the rest of the troops. The hell fighters had 0:12:12.516 --> 0:12:17.116 seen two months of action, the Germans had seen three years. 0:12:17.556 --> 0:12:21.636 They'd become experts at raiding trenches, coming by surprise, killing, 0:12:21.956 --> 0:12:26.596 taking soldiers prisoner, and pumping them for intelligence. That night, 0:12:27.036 --> 0:12:29.956 everyone was on edge. They were sure a raiding party 0:12:30.036 --> 0:12:33.676 was going to come. So sure a French lieutenant ordered 0:12:33.716 --> 0:12:37.036 Henry and Needham back to safety. Henry, as he told 0:12:37.036 --> 0:12:41.316 reporters later, wasn't having it. Lieutenant, He said, I'm an 0:12:41.356 --> 0:12:46.356 American and I never retreat. Henry and Needham stood watch 0:12:46.476 --> 0:12:49.756 all through the pitch black night. Their ears were tuned 0:12:49.756 --> 0:12:53.236 to everything around them, the wind whistling through no man's land, 0:12:53.676 --> 0:12:56.916 a rustle in the leaves. Then at two or three 0:12:56.916 --> 0:13:02.436 in the morning, they heard an ominous gnawing noise. Crunch, crunch, crunch. 0:13:03.316 --> 0:13:08.316 It was the sound of wire cutters. Suddenly, an enemy 0:13:08.356 --> 0:13:13.756 flare that the dark. The Germans had arrived. Grenades exploded, 0:13:13.916 --> 0:13:17.156 and bullets cut through the night. Air Shrapnel tore through 0:13:17.196 --> 0:13:20.796 Henry and Needham's uniforms their skin. Henry threw grenades of 0:13:20.836 --> 0:13:24.316 his own, his heart racing, he shouldered his rifle and 0:13:24.396 --> 0:13:28.236 started shooting. Needham, meanwhile, had been wounded in the arm 0:13:28.276 --> 0:13:32.276 and hip, and he lost consciousness. Henry was fighting alone. 0:13:32.836 --> 0:13:35.596 In an instant, the Germans were on top of them. 0:13:35.836 --> 0:13:39.436 Henry couldn't see how many ten twenty. He realized with 0:13:39.476 --> 0:13:41.756 horror that they were going to drag need Him away. 0:13:42.276 --> 0:13:44.876 The hell Fighters hadn't yet let a man be captured 0:13:44.876 --> 0:13:48.396 as a prisoner. They prided themselves on that he had 0:13:48.436 --> 0:13:51.676 to keep them from taking Needham. Henry had fired all 0:13:51.716 --> 0:13:53.556 the rounds in his rifle, and when he went to 0:13:53.596 --> 0:13:57.236 reload it, it jammed unusable, so he turned his rifle 0:13:57.276 --> 0:14:01.196 around and swung it wildly. Alone and mobbed by the enemy, 0:14:01.396 --> 0:14:03.916 he beat back the Germans until the butt of his 0:14:04.036 --> 0:14:07.876 rifle broke. Then he remembered his bolo knife. If you 0:14:07.916 --> 0:14:10.516 don't know what a bolo knife, let me put it 0:14:10.556 --> 0:14:13.476 this way. You don't cut butter with it. Nine to 0:14:13.516 --> 0:14:16.916 fourteen inches long, with a razor sharp blade along one side. 0:14:17.236 --> 0:14:20.956 Henry swung the knife and took down one enemy's soldier. 0:14:21.196 --> 0:14:25.276 Then another shots rang out. Henry was hit in the 0:14:25.356 --> 0:14:29.156 right forearm, right hip, and left leg, but he kept stabbing. 0:14:29.716 --> 0:14:32.356 He swung his knife till the Germans turned and ran 0:14:32.436 --> 0:14:35.636 into the night. He slashed and thrust until he was 0:14:35.716 --> 0:14:40.396 sure his friend was safe. Henry, as his wife Edna knew, 0:14:41.076 --> 0:14:45.156 could go so he'd lost a lot of blood. He 0:14:45.196 --> 0:14:48.076 struggled to stay conscious. He just couldn't, and as he 0:14:48.116 --> 0:14:51.716 sank to the ground, Henry hurled one last grenade, hitting 0:14:51.876 --> 0:14:57.796 and killing an enemy's soldier. As he fled, reinforcements reached 0:14:57.796 --> 0:15:01.396 the listening post a few minutes later. Melville remembers it 0:15:01.876 --> 0:15:05.916 Henry had been wounded twenty one times. 0:15:06.516 --> 0:15:10.196 Well, he refused to die and took Johnson and Roberts. 0:15:10.476 --> 0:15:12.356 We finally got out there in the morning, dragged their 0:15:12.396 --> 0:15:15.716 bodies back. They weren't dead and both lived through it. 0:15:16.756 --> 0:15:19.516 The next morning, as the two recovered in the hospital, 0:15:19.756 --> 0:15:22.956 their commanding officers surveyed the path of the Germans retreat. 0:15:23.676 --> 0:15:27.356 His captain Arthur Little wrote, quote, we trailed the course 0:15:27.436 --> 0:15:30.796 with the greatest of ease, by pulls of blood, blood 0:15:30.836 --> 0:15:34.676 soaked bandages, and blood smeared logs with the routed party 0:15:34.716 --> 0:15:37.956 had rested. They also discovered that the raiding party had 0:15:38.036 --> 0:15:41.356 left behind a small but very valuable collection of weapons 0:15:41.356 --> 0:15:44.916 and intelligence. They deduced that as many as twenty four 0:15:44.956 --> 0:15:47.516 Germans had been on the scene, yet Henry had held 0:15:47.556 --> 0:15:52.156 them off in hand to hand combat without a working firearm. 0:15:52.476 --> 0:15:57.356 In the dark, he kept them from crossing the French line, 0:15:57.436 --> 0:16:00.196 and just a few minutes of fighting he had defeated 0:16:00.276 --> 0:16:05.716 an entire raiding party. That's why when Henry came back home, 0:16:06.436 --> 0:16:10.556 everyone in America knew his name. The day after the battle, 0:16:10.916 --> 0:16:14.916 three American reporters arrived at the scene. While General Pershing 0:16:15.156 --> 0:16:19.356 had restricted news about American military operations overseas, the French 0:16:19.396 --> 0:16:22.196 had no such rules, and the three hundred and sixty 0:16:22.276 --> 0:16:27.596 ninth was, after all, embedded with the French. The journalists 0:16:27.676 --> 0:16:30.396 raised to speak to Needham and Henry at the hospital. 0:16:30.916 --> 0:16:33.716 They sent their reports back to the States, where people 0:16:33.756 --> 0:16:36.876 were desperate for some news, any news of progress in 0:16:36.916 --> 0:16:40.356 the war. Henry was happy to talk to the reporters 0:16:40.356 --> 0:16:44.596 about that night and that Bolo knife. Each slash meant 0:16:44.636 --> 0:16:48.156 something believe me, he told them, I just fought my life. 0:16:48.556 --> 0:16:51.916 A rabbit would have done that. His actions, wrote the 0:16:51.916 --> 0:16:55.116 Saturday Evening Post, were proof that the color of a 0:16:55.116 --> 0:16:58.156 man's skin has nothing to do with the color of 0:16:58.196 --> 0:17:03.156 his soul. Two days after the attack, the French sixteenth Division, 0:17:03.356 --> 0:17:07.316 which commanded the hell Fighters, officially recognized the actions of 0:17:07.356 --> 0:17:11.916 Needham and Henry. Both received the French Quadiguere, the country's 0:17:12.036 --> 0:17:15.156 highest military honor. They were some of the first U. 0:17:15.196 --> 0:17:19.716 S soldiers ever to earn this distinction. Henry's medal also 0:17:19.836 --> 0:17:23.796 included the Bronze Palm for extraordinary valor, and that's when 0:17:23.796 --> 0:17:28.796 he got his nickname Black Death. It took two days 0:17:28.876 --> 0:17:32.916 for the French to award Henry's courage. It would take 0:17:33.276 --> 0:17:40.196 decades for the United States to do the same. Henry 0:17:40.236 --> 0:17:42.836 spent the rest of the war in a French hospital 0:17:43.076 --> 0:17:46.916 recovering from his injuries. His foot had been destroyed, and 0:17:46.996 --> 0:17:50.756 the army awarded him the Wounded Chevron, an acknowledgment of 0:17:50.796 --> 0:17:55.556 his disabilities. They also upgraded his rank from private to sergeant. 0:17:55.916 --> 0:17:58.276 But while the French were willing to honor his courage 0:17:58.316 --> 0:18:02.116 and valor with a medal, the American military would not, 0:18:03.036 --> 0:18:04.956 even though by the end of the war in the 0:18:04.956 --> 0:18:08.196 winter of nineteen eighteen, the Harlem hell Fighters had served 0:18:08.196 --> 0:18:11.716 longer in the trench, which is than any other American regiment, 0:18:12.116 --> 0:18:15.916 and they had suffered the most losses, with fifteen hundred casualties. 0:18:16.796 --> 0:18:19.556 A reporter from a local paper found Henry at the 0:18:19.556 --> 0:18:21.716 pier as he got off the steamer coming home to 0:18:21.756 --> 0:18:25.276 New York and described him this way. His lip is 0:18:25.316 --> 0:18:28.956 scarred by a knife slash, his head holds a dent 0:18:29.116 --> 0:18:32.276 made by a rifle butt. In his hand is the 0:18:32.316 --> 0:18:35.956 welt of a bayonet's slash, and a silver plate keeps 0:18:35.956 --> 0:18:39.876 his left foot in place. He got his heroes welcome. 0:18:40.436 --> 0:18:42.956 Henry rode in a place of honor in the parade 0:18:43.036 --> 0:18:47.636 up Fifth Avenue, carrying a bouquet of lilies. Melville remembered it, well. 0:18:48.436 --> 0:18:53.556 Everybody wanted to see Henry Johnson. Everybody wanted to shakers here. 0:18:54.556 --> 0:18:56.956 That's one day that it wasn't a sighted bit. 0:18:56.916 --> 0:19:02.036 Of prejudice in New York City. Henry was featured on 0:19:02.076 --> 0:19:05.756 an ad for war stamps. It read Henry Johnson licked 0:19:05.756 --> 0:19:09.636 a dozen Germans. How many stamps have you licked? But 0:19:09.756 --> 0:19:13.516 Henry was exhausted, physically broken. When he got off the 0:19:13.556 --> 0:19:16.316 train in Albany, finally home, he was greeted by New 0:19:16.356 --> 0:19:19.196 York Governor L Smith and a group of cheering fans. 0:19:19.716 --> 0:19:22.436 He was grateful, of course, but pay attention to what 0:19:22.436 --> 0:19:25.876 he said to the reporters quote, I am very proud 0:19:25.876 --> 0:19:28.196 of all of you, but I am sick and tired. 0:19:28.876 --> 0:19:30.996 I just want to say that I am glad to 0:19:31.036 --> 0:19:35.276 get back home. He didn't want to be celebrated, but 0:19:35.356 --> 0:19:37.796 the welcoming party wouldn't take no for an answer, and 0:19:37.916 --> 0:19:40.876 Henry was paraded around the city and hustled to get 0:19:40.876 --> 0:19:44.796 another fancy dinner. Governor Smith promised to name a street 0:19:44.916 --> 0:19:48.516 after him, and then the Attorney General's office started raising 0:19:48.516 --> 0:19:51.436 funds to build a new house for Henry too, but 0:19:51.596 --> 0:19:55.236 those things came at a price. He was asked to 0:19:55.276 --> 0:19:58.196 speak before the New York State Senate Judiciary Committee, and 0:19:58.236 --> 0:20:03.356 he had terrible stage fright, sweating and stammering. Afterwards, the 0:20:03.396 --> 0:20:08.236 papers announced hero flunks in speech effort, and maybe because 0:20:08.516 --> 0:20:12.276 the real Henry wasn't so keen on public appearances, fake 0:20:12.356 --> 0:20:15.636 Henry Johnson's started popping up to take his place and 0:20:15.676 --> 0:20:19.076 make money off it. Two fake Henry's were arrested in 0:20:19.116 --> 0:20:23.076 Albany selling photographs. Henry asked the judge to go easy 0:20:23.076 --> 0:20:25.996 on them and offered to lend the impersonator's money if 0:20:26.036 --> 0:20:30.276 they needed it. The newspapers noted that quote, he doesn't 0:20:30.356 --> 0:20:33.276 care for the honors himself, but he hates to have 0:20:33.316 --> 0:20:38.196 the public imposed upon Then another fake Henry appeared in 0:20:38.276 --> 0:20:41.716 Saint Louis before thousands of fans and the city's mayor. 0:20:42.156 --> 0:20:45.836 That one was hauled off to jail. So now the 0:20:45.876 --> 0:20:48.636 pressure was on the real Henry to get out there 0:20:48.676 --> 0:20:53.676 and speak for himself. The organizers of the Saint Louis 0:20:53.676 --> 0:20:56.796 event pleaded with him to come and speak, and, maybe 0:20:56.836 --> 0:20:59.436 because he felt badly that they had been deceived, or 0:20:59.436 --> 0:21:02.756 maybe because he needed the money, he went to be 0:21:02.796 --> 0:21:06.476 the star attraction in an evening celebrating black contributions to 0:21:06.516 --> 0:21:10.476 the war effort. It was held in the Colosseum, the 0:21:10.596 --> 0:21:13.316 largest and most luxurious venue in all of Saint Louis. 0:21:13.916 --> 0:21:17.436 Five thousand people gathered to hear him tell his story. 0:21:18.796 --> 0:21:22.596 He was walking into an atmosphere bubbling with racial tension 0:21:23.476 --> 0:21:26.796 in Saint Louis and across the country. Lynchings were in 0:21:26.836 --> 0:21:30.796 the news constantly. The klu Kluck's Klan was on the rise, 0:21:30.876 --> 0:21:33.636 not just in the South, but stretching the whole width 0:21:33.716 --> 0:21:37.956 of the United States, from New Jersey to Oregon. So 0:21:38.036 --> 0:21:42.116 the evening of Friday, March twenty eighth, nineteen nineteen was 0:21:42.156 --> 0:21:44.876 meant to be a joyful one, but also to walk 0:21:44.916 --> 0:21:48.836 a very thin line on the question of race. Dramatic oratory, 0:21:49.356 --> 0:21:52.916 heroic stories, a tribute to the sacrifice of a community, 0:21:53.436 --> 0:21:58.636 and a small request for rights. It started out the 0:21:58.756 --> 0:22:01.796 usual way. First there was a welcome from the mayor 0:22:01.836 --> 0:22:04.916 of Saint Louis that was followed by speeches from a 0:22:04.956 --> 0:22:08.436 Missouri senator, the president of the city's board of aldermen, 0:22:08.876 --> 0:22:12.956 a congressman, and more. Then a series of black preachers spoke, 0:22:13.436 --> 0:22:17.796 and one, a minister for Mississippi, called for the enfranchisement 0:22:18.036 --> 0:22:21.196 of black voters in his home state. The man who 0:22:21.236 --> 0:22:23.516 is good enough to carry a musket in no Man's 0:22:23.596 --> 0:22:26.236 Land is good enough to carry a ballot in the 0:22:26.276 --> 0:22:30.276 state of Mississippi, he said. Another preacher made the case 0:22:30.436 --> 0:22:33.076 that black people should be included in the new wave 0:22:33.116 --> 0:22:36.956 of post war industry, each one of them asking politely 0:22:36.996 --> 0:22:40.556 for those things that were supposed to be their ineligenable rights, 0:22:41.156 --> 0:22:45.716 not being too controversial. And then it was Henry's turn. 0:22:46.476 --> 0:22:49.116 He was supposed to get up on stage and smile 0:22:49.316 --> 0:22:53.236 and wave, just like he did during that parade. We 0:22:53.236 --> 0:22:56.436 don't have Henry's personal letters or his diaries. We can't 0:22:56.436 --> 0:23:00.556 know exactly what he was thinking, but here's a clue. 0:23:00.596 --> 0:23:04.556 He kept the dignitaries and the politicians waiting on the 0:23:04.596 --> 0:23:11.356 stage to begin the event for an hour, the mayor, 0:23:11.716 --> 0:23:15.916 the senator, five thousand people, all them waiting. What was 0:23:15.916 --> 0:23:19.636 he doing pacing in the hall, back and forth, back 0:23:19.636 --> 0:23:24.996 and forth, thinking about something. Maybe he still had terrible 0:23:25.036 --> 0:23:28.156 stage fright. Maybe he was worn out from being carted 0:23:28.196 --> 0:23:31.956 around like a curiosity. Or maybe what he was exhausted 0:23:31.996 --> 0:23:36.316 by was all this politeness and forbearance. Maybe he was 0:23:36.396 --> 0:23:39.396 sick of pleading for equality from the country the Harlem 0:23:39.436 --> 0:23:42.076 hell fighters had been willing to fight and die for. 0:23:42.676 --> 0:23:47.396 We can't know, but what happened next changed the trajectory 0:23:47.676 --> 0:23:53.276 of Henry Johnson's life. He made his triumphant entrance, hobbling 0:23:53.356 --> 0:23:58.596 on his shattered foot. The crowd went absolutely nuts. He 0:23:58.636 --> 0:24:01.476 stepped to the mic alone like he'd been that night 0:24:01.556 --> 0:24:05.436 in no man's land, and whatever upbeat, happy thing he 0:24:05.556 --> 0:24:08.956 was meant to say, he didn't say it. His tone 0:24:08.996 --> 0:24:13.556 was bitter. Equal treatment in the war was a lie. 0:24:13.636 --> 0:24:16.796 He said, there was no racial friendship. In the trenches. 0:24:17.316 --> 0:24:21.916 Black troops suffered prejudicial treatment from white American soldiers, and 0:24:21.956 --> 0:24:26.676 those white soldiers weren't just bigots, they were cowards. Henry 0:24:26.716 --> 0:24:29.356 told the colosseum that a white major had said, and 0:24:29.396 --> 0:24:32.356 I'm quoting here, send the Negro troops to the front. 0:24:32.716 --> 0:24:35.276 There are two darn many negroes in New York anyway. 0:24:36.236 --> 0:24:39.156 And then Henry added, if I were a white man 0:24:39.196 --> 0:24:42.756 in Albany, I would have so much metal that I 0:24:42.756 --> 0:24:46.196 would be the next governor of New York State. The 0:24:46.316 --> 0:24:51.996 audience was stunned. Some uniform black officers left the stage 0:24:51.996 --> 0:24:56.356 in protest. Others in the audience cheered. It was complete chaos. 0:24:56.916 --> 0:25:00.996 What they all felt was shock. This guy was famous, 0:25:01.036 --> 0:25:03.756 which in America means you're supposed to be happy, right 0:25:04.276 --> 0:25:06.756 that did say this and say it in front of 0:25:06.796 --> 0:25:12.116 white dignitaries. It simply was done. But Henry was used 0:25:12.116 --> 0:25:18.996 to fighting alone. The Saint Louis Argus, the preeminent black 0:25:19.036 --> 0:25:21.996 paper in the city reported on the evening with horror. 0:25:22.436 --> 0:25:26.516 Remember times were precarious for black people, being outspoken like 0:25:26.596 --> 0:25:30.076 Henry was a risk to the community's safety. The front 0:25:30.116 --> 0:25:36.956 page blared Henry Johnson's speech insults Colosseum crowd. Missus Victoria 0:25:36.996 --> 0:25:39.556 Clay Hayley, who had brought Henry to Saint Louis for 0:25:39.596 --> 0:25:42.836 the event, swore, quote, of course we didn't know what 0:25:42.876 --> 0:25:44.996 the man was going to say. We wouldn't have had 0:25:45.076 --> 0:25:46.916 him come here to insult the white people of our 0:25:46.956 --> 0:25:50.596 city for anything. He did us more harm than good, 0:25:51.636 --> 0:25:53.716