One hundred years ago, on February 17, 1919, the African-American 369th Infantry Regiment, popularly known as the Harlem Hell Fighters, marched up Fifth Avenue into Harlem in a massive victory parade in their honor.
“Hell Fighters” was the nickname the German enemy gave the 369th and the name stuck for good reason. They were among the first American troops to see action, fighting under French command, and Privates Henry Johnson and Needham Roberts were the first Americans awarded Croix de Guerre by the French government. The valor of the two men in battling and repulsing a German raiding party of at least two dozen soldiers on the night of May 14, 1918 was extolled in newspapers.
Favorable coverage of black soldiers in New York newspapers could be expected for members of the segregated former 15th New York National Guard Regiment, which had been federalized as the 369th. Johnson and Roberts were featured far beyond New York, though, from Washington, DC to Kansas City, Missouri to Tacoma, Washington, and elsewhere, in both general interest and African-American newspapers.
The 369th Infantry was also justly famous in America and Europe for its band. The military band, which Lieutenant James Reese Europe organized and led, introduced jazz to many French troops and civilians. The Kansas City Sun reported that “all Lyons now declares that it is the grandest band that ever visited here.”
The band members, made up