the Harlem Hell Fighters was a regiment of New York National Guardsmen in the first world war they were set up to fail by their own government they were humiliated degraded uh eventually given to the French army as a throwaway and they ended up coming home as one of the most decorated units in the entire US Army the Harlem Hell Fighters are one of the most important regiments in American history in World War I they helped to establish to the entire world the power of black soldiers in the military it was very difficult at that time for African-Americans to get into the United States military because there was this perception that African-Americans would not do well in battle they had to overcome the Prejudice of their own countrymen and yet also perform a on the battlefield like so many units of African-American descent when they go overseas they're not sure what they're going to do are they going to fight his infantry or are they going to be Ste ofor and load ship are they going to be labor units and cut wood and so they're committed to labor Duty they're unloading ships building latrines those type of support services and as you can imagine these men have been trained and they're willing to fight they're ready to fight and this is stressful for them they were finally given to the French army which in a way was an even greater insult because in the first world war when the United States entered General persing the commanding officer was very clear that American forces would not be fed peace meal into the French and British Army cuz the French and British wanted reinforcements and persing said absolutely not when Americans join this war they will fight as an American Force under an American flag led by an American General dot dot dot except for the black guys you can have them Henry Johnson is perhaps one of the most remarkable black military heroes in US history and he found himself in no man's land with private NM Roberts Manning a listening post and NM Roberts hears click click click and he realizes somebody's cutting the wire it's potentially a German raid and so Roberts is passing him grenades and they line up these grenades and the Germans actually do come across the lines Roberts is hurt and now Henry Johnson is left to defend their position and to stve off this attack and then he makes the mistake of jamming a French cartridge into his American Gun and it no longer will work and the Germans are on top of it he then used his rifle like a club and then he ended up fighting with a knife against the Kaiser's best and turned them he's wounded in The Fray he's struck for example in the foot um and has a debilitating injury as a result and he fights them off he says for what seemed like an hour the Germans ran shrieking into the night all because of one man it's not until the next morning that people realize what a tremendous act this was they discover four bodies of dead German soldiers and they also realize from the equipment and other things that are left behind that as many as 30 may have been involved in this altercation as soon as he drove off those Germans the French awarded him with the quadir a great honor unfortunately it took about 75 years for the US government to give him the Legion of Merit had he been white he would have walked out of that war with the Medal of [Music] Honor what was so shocking to me when I began to research the story of the hell Fighters was that after they had performed so magnificently in combat the United States government actually sent a memorandum to the French government essentially implementing Jim Crow essentially saying don't give them some notion that they are equals because we don't want them taking that notion back to the United States and demanding equality when it come back to the United States he's not awarded the purple heart there's no notation in his military record of his injury and so he winds up not being able to work because of this injury he doesn't get any kind of assistance from the from the army or from the government as a result and he ends up dying in 1929 pennil so it again shows the Paradox here's this great story of Valor and of Courage on the part of the soldier and ultimately he comes back to a nation that doesn't honor that sacrifice we tend to think we all know American history so well but the story of the Harlem Hell Fighters should be one of the first stories told it wasn't about killing other people it was about being Americans and serving their country well that was the inclination of the Harlem Hell Fighters when you are African-American in 1917 democracy is armor democracy is a weapon and to fight for a war to make the world safe for democracy was something more than just some ethereal Crusade for the hell Fighters it had concrete results they were fighting for the rights to be a citizen of the country that they were born in [Music]