The 369th Infantry earned the name Harlem Hellfighters in combat. Its record also shows how Black soldiers could be relied upon in war while being segregated within the Army and recognized slowly afterward.
A regiment the Army tried to keep separate
The U.S. Army’s account of Sergeant Henry Johnson explains that racial discrimination and segregation shaped where African-American units could serve. The 369th Infantry was assigned to the allied French Army rather than placed alongside white American units.
The regiment’s combat record was unmistakable. The Army records that the 369th spent 191 days in front-line trenches and earned a regimental French Croix de Guerre, along with more than 170 individual Croix de Guerre medals.
Henry Johnson on May 15, 1918
Henry Johnson was born William Henry Johnson in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, enlisted on June 5, 1917, and served in Company C of the 15th New York Infantry, the unit that became the 369th Infantry. In France on May 15, 1918, he defended against a German raiding party while on sentry duty.
The official Army page records that Johnson sustained 21 combat injuries. France awarded him the Croix de Guerre with Palme on February 12, 1919. The account preserves the action, the injuries, and the recognition without pretending that one award settled the larger history.
Recognition late but not erased
Johnson died in July 1929. His Purple Heart was awarded posthumously in 1996, and he received the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously in 2002. In 2015, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in a ceremony at the Pentagon.
The timing is part of the story. The record of courage existed before the nation finished naming it. Remembering Johnson means remembering both what he did in 1918 and how long official recognition took to catch up.