Preview Current Issue

Archives
Week of May 1 - 8 2002

SGT. HENRY JOHNSON committed an act of unbelievable heroism on May 14, 1918, fighting in the United State's segregated Army against Germany in World War I. But, ironically, his place in history was assured when the French government made him the first American (of any ethnicity), to be awarded the French Croix de Guerre, with Gold Palm, its nation's highest award for valor, although his heroics were mostly ignored by his own racist country.

Nevertheless, that unfortunate travesty changed on Feb. 12, 2001, when New York's Gov. George E. Pataki sent a letter to United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in support of the long-delayed Medal of Honor tribute for the World War I hero who was born in his state. Concluding a five-year effort to help obtain the nation's highest military honor for Sgt. Johnson, Pataki, Pataki petitioned Rumsfeld: "Sgt. Henry Johnson is not only a hometown hero for the residents of Albany (New York), but also a nation hero. It was been 83 years since Sgt. Henry Johnson single-handedly battled an entire German raiding party with a rifle and then faced his foes in hand-to-hand combat."

He received over 21 wounds, yet, through his own determination and heroism, prevailed against the enemy. The actions of men like Sgt. Henry Johnson were doubly significant in that they not only helped win great victories for their nation, they also helped to explode the myths that were the underpinnings of racial segregation in America." Lawmakers from New York, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, had earlier passed federal legislation to permit President George W. Bush to award Johnson the Medal of Honor. The bill also proposes a review of the service records of other Black World War I veterans to determine whether they were overlooked for awards of valor.

In 1996, the Governor's director Division of Military and Naval Affairs (DMNA) to research compile and officially submit through the appropriate military chain of command, the nomination package necessary to secure the Medal of Honor for Sgt. Johnson. Johnson, indeed, was some kind of an African warrior, inasmuch as he shot Germans until his rifle ran out of ammunition and then used his bayonet to finish them off. Although he suffered from 21 wounds, he still managed to drag a comrade to safety and miraculously lived to come back home to second-class citizenship in the land of the free.

France awarded Johnson its highest honor, due to the fact that when he joined the Army Nation Guard's "Harlem Hellfighter" unit, strict segregation rules forced African-American units to fight under the French flag in Europe. After Johnson received the French accolade, he was cited by the old "Roughrider" (President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt) as one of the five bravest Americans during World War I. Yet Johnson died in 1929, in his mid-30s, a poor alcoholic, undecorated by his own country.

For years it was believed that he had never been recognized in the United States, but records New York officials dug up as they gathered material to support his application for a Medal of Honor showed he had received some recognition after returning from Europe, including riding in a ticker-tape parade in Manhattan. In January 2001, the state Division of Military and Naval Affairs learned that Johnson was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. That came as a surprised to his son, Herman Johnson, 85, of Kansas City, Mo., who always believed his father had been buried in an unmarked grave underneath the tarmac of Albany International Airport.

The younger Johnson came to the cemetery of heroes with Pataki in January 2001, to decorate his father's grave. Herman Johnson said at the time he believed racism was in part to blame for the military's failure to decorate his father. Clinton said that the bill she helped pass with Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, Republican Reps. Benjamin Gilman and John Sweeney and Democratic Rep, Michael McNully-all of New York-- was necessary to allow Bush to circumvent the Pentagon and award the Medal of Honor to Johnson.

The Medal of Honor process is supposed to begin within two years of a specific act of heroism. But since Johnson's heroism took place more than 80 years ago, the military has resisted decorating him. Major General Jack Fenimore, who serves as New York's Adjutant General said "The Division of Military and Naval Affairs is very proud to have played a role in helping ensure that this courageous soldier is duly recognized for his heroism. The effort to obtain official recognition of Sgt. Johnson's heroism was complicated by Army regulations governing the awarding of the Medal of Honor and lost records."