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Some Black New York National Guard Soldiers, known as “Hellfighters” by their German enemies 100 years ago, were recognized with Congress’ highest honor during a Sept. 3 ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.
The Congressional Gold Medal was presented to descendants of some of the 4,000 Soldiers who served in the 369th Infantry Regiment, nicknamed the Harlem Hellfighters, during World War I.
The medal is the “highest honor that this body can bestow on any group or individual,” said Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., the speaker of the House of Representatives.
The Congressional Gold Medal allows the House and the Senate to “show our national appreciation for the achievements and contributions of truly great Americans,” Johnson said.
The official recognition of Harlem Hellfighter heroism made the event “a joyous occasion,” said Col. Bryon Linnehan, the commander of the Hellfighters of today, the New York Army Guard’s 369th Sustainment Brigade.
Each of the 4,000 Hellfighters had an individual story of courage and sacrifice, Linnehan told an audience that included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; Air Force General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Air Force General Steven Nordhaus, the chief of the National Guard Bureau.
“Today’s Hellfighters honor all of these men to preserve their legacy and example,” Linnehan said in his remarks.
The 369th Infantry got its start in 1916 as the 15th New York, a Guard unit for Black Americans who wanted to serve in the segregated Army of the time.
While the unit was based in Harlem, it eventually expanded to include Black Americans from across the country after the United States entered World War I in 1917.
When the Soldiers left for France in 1917, they got a new regimental number. They were denied combat duty with the U.S. Army, but fought with the French Army.
The 369th Infantry Soldiers served in combat for 191 days, took 1,400 casualties, earned 171 Croix de Guerre medals — France’s highest award for valor — and were the first Americans to march into Germany at the war’s end.
When they came home in 1919, 3,000 Hellfighters marched up New York’s Fifth Avenue, cheered on by hundreds of thousands.
Despite their fame, veterans of the 369th were lynched when they returned home elsewhere — killed by white mobs who resented Black veterans.
That history made the ceremony in the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall especially powerful, said Staff Sgt. Jodian Beckford, a member of the 369th Sustainment Brigade’s 1501st Field Feeding Company who attended the ceremony.
As a Black Soldier, it was “more than just a regular day for me,” she said.
“They were being embraced not by families only, but America as a whole,” Beckford said. “It was an out-of-body experience for me.”
The effort to create a Congressional Gold Medal for the Harlem Hellfighters began when Debra Willet, the granddaughter of a Hellfighter, began pushing for the honor.
Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., embraced the idea. With the support of the entire New York congressional delegation and others, then-President Joe Biden in 2021 signed a bill into law by commissioning the medal.
“My grandfather and the other brave men that fought alongside him never thought that their courage and their exploits would be celebrated in such a revered setting,” Willet said.
“They sacrificed, and they thought that they were making a difference, and today proves that they did,” she added.
—By Eric Durr, New York National Guard
