Home Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., presents Debra Willett, the granddaughter of Harlem Hellfighter Sgt. Leander Willett, with the Congressional Gold Medal on behalf of the entire “Harlem Hellfighters” of World Battle I throughout a ceremony on Capitol Hill on Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
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The Harlem Hellfighters of the New York Nationwide Guard’s 369th Infantry Regiment have been posthumously honored this week with a Congressional Gold Medal. They acquired the very best civilian honor given by Congress, many years after their service throughout World Battle I used to be largely ignored by prime navy brass — and amid broader efforts to revisit how American historical past is remembered.
“It is by no means too late to do the correct factor,” mentioned Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., on the Wednesday ceremony celebrating the troops and their households.
“At the moment we honor the legacy of your fathers, your grandfathers and your great-grandfathers who served our nation beneath excessive circumstances and regardless of intense discrimination. We’re all higher for his or her service,” Suozzi mentioned.
The lawmaker first launched a invoice to honor the troopers of the majority-Black 369th Infantry in 2021, however the award was not formally unveiled till this week.
Throughout the ceremony, Home Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., echoed Suozzi’s sentiments:
“We all know that generations of African-American troopers have answered that decision to struggle for freedom, whether or not on battlefields at residence or overseas. Their nation requested them to struggle, they usually did many times, even whereas being denied the complete measure of these freedoms right here on American soil.”
Debra Willett, a granddaughter of Harlem Hellfighter Sgt. Leander Willett, accepted the award on the troopers’ behalf.
“I do know that my grandfather and the opposite courageous males that fought alongside him by no means thought that their braveness and their exploits could be celebrated in such a revered setting,” she mentioned.
“They sacrificed, they usually thought they have been making a distinction. And right this moment proves that they did.”
The medal shall be given to the Smithsonian Establishment, “the place it will likely be displayed as applicable and made out there for analysis,” in accordance with the invoice put forth by Suozzi.
The regiment that got here to be referred to as the Harlem Hellfighters served within the trenches of World Battle I for 191 days, rising legendary for his or her preventing talents.
However their journey to the battle strains was checkered by racism within the still-segregated armed forces.
“The 369th skilled quite a few harrowing experiences throughout their coaching in the US, together with a close to race riot in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the place they have been initially stationed, and one other close to race riot after they have been rapidly despatched again to New Jersey for coaching,” mentioned Chad Williams, a professor of historical past and African American and Black diaspora research at Boston College.
“The explanation they have been shipped to France after they have been was as a result of the US Military wished to get them off of American soil as rapidly as doable to keep away from any potential racial catastrophes,” Williams instructed NPR.
White troopers have been reluctant to serve alongside the largely Black battalion, so the Harlem Hellfighters fought alongside the Allied French, preventing off enemy troopers and turning into the primary unit to succeed in the Rhine River.
On the time, the troopers known as themselves the Black Rattlers. However their ferocity on the battlefield ultimately earned them the title Hellfighters.
“They’re devils,” a captured Prussian officer recalled to his captors. “They smile whereas they kill they usually will not be taken alive.”
Regardless of their renown on the battlefield, their tales went largely untold for many years — and the popularity comes at a time when the Trump administration is reviewing how American historical past is remembered.
The Smithsonian Establishment, which is able to home the Congressional Medal, has been on the heart of that effort.
Final month, the White Home despatched a letter to Lonnie Bunch III, secretary of the Smithsonian Establishment, stating that the Trump administration’s assessment of sure museums is to “guarantee alignment with the President’s directive to rejoice American exceptionalism, take away divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural establishments.”
Williams mentioned the Hellfighters’ recognition represents the sophisticated nature of how historical past is commonly instructed.
“On the one hand, it is lengthy overdue recognition, however it’s definitely ironic, contemplating the instances that we’re in,” Williams mentioned. “It speaks to the very sophisticated and oftentimes very hypocritical methods by which this nation has chosen to handle its racial historical past.”
The transfer, Williams mentioned, spoke to the “cynical” nature of the Trump administration.
“It was a really inspiring, very patriotic, very well-deserved recognition of the historic significance and sacrifices of the 369th,” Williams mentioned. “However, it was a really cynical show of selective racial reminiscence.”
