An overdue honor
Push to get Hellfighters long-delayed award
Long before Charles Rangel earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart for his service during the Korean War, Black soldiers had been defending the U.S. at home and abroad for generations.
None of them did it under a more trailblazing banner than the Harlem Hellfighters, a fearless group of World War I soldiers who partnered with French troops when no white American units would fight by their side.
But in France, the 369th Infantry Regiment was treated no differently than any French unit, according to historians. Still, the regiment spent more days in frontline trenches than any other American unit and suffered the most losses of any U.S. regiment, with 1,500 casualties.
“African-Americans had hope in the phrase, ‘in order to establish a more perfect union,’ ” said Rangel, 90, who represented Harlem in Congress for 46 years.
“We have fought and defended in every war in order to make this country better.”
Rangel was among those on hand in Manhattan on Thursday to pay tribute to the Harlem Hellfighters and support new legislation to honor the regiment with a Congressional Gold Medal.
Under a bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi, who represents parts of Queens and Long Island, Congress would bestow long-overdue recognition of the bravery and service the Hellfighters showed during the Great War.
Despite the courage, sacrifice, and dedication proudly displayed by the Harlem Hellfighters in service to their country, they returned home to face racism and segregation in America..
“Since the war, our country has not given the Harlem Hellfighters the recognition they deserve,” Suozzi said at Harlem’s historic 369th Regiment Armory. “It’s never too late to do the right thing. It’s never too late to try to make up for the failures of the past and the great failure of this country in how we treated African-Americans, and we need to educate people in the roles the Harlem Hellfighters played.”
Suozzi took up the banner after the family of Harlem Hellfighter Leander Willett sought the congressman’s help in getting a posthumous Purple Heart medal for the regiment sergeant, who was stabbed with a bayonet in a battle.
After Willett was awarded the Purple Heart in 2019, Suozzi said he wanted to find a way to honor those who were in the trenches with the sergeant.
“I want to invoke the words, honor, gratitude, and most importantly America,” said Willett’s granddaughter Debra Willett. “These are the words my grandfather and the other soldiers hoped to hear and deserved to hear when they returned from World War I and World War II.”
Suozzi said there are only two Black units honored with gold medals: The Tuskegee Airmen and the Montford Point Marines.
If the legislation passes, the Congressional Gold medal would be designed and struck by the United States Mint and displayed at the Smithsonian Institution and at events associated with the Harlem Hellfighters.
Bronze versions of the medals would be struck for sale by the U.S. Mint.
“Our heroes went to a foreign country to help fight and liberate and when they came back home, it was almost as if they did nothing,” said former Assemblyman Keith Wright, whose grandfather was a Harlem Hellfighter. “They fought for freedom in another country but they did not get freedom themselves.”