Harlem Hellfighters honored with Congressional Gold Medal in Washington

WASHINGTON — Defense officials, congressional leaders and lawmakers honored members of a famed African-American regiment from New York that served during World War I, as part of a ceremony Wednesday on Capitol Hill.

Descendants of those who served in the Harlem Hellfighters were given the Congressional Gold Medal to celebrate the 369th infantry regiment’s bravery in the Great War.

Former President Joe Biden had signed legislation in 2021 to award it to the servicemen.

After accepting the medal from House Speaker Mike Johnson, Debra Willett, the granddaughter of Sgt. Leander Willett, said: “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.”

“They sacrificed, and they thought that they were making a difference,” the Hellfighter descendant added in awe, “and today proves that they did.”

Johnson added in his closing remarks, “We say again, in no uncertain terms, God bless these boys,” echoing the words that New Yorkers greeted the men with as they returned from the war in the early 1900s.

The speaker was joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), as well as members of the New York delegation who spent five years trying to secure the honor for the Hellfighters.

“Today, we honor the legacy of your fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers who served our nation under extreme circumstances and despite intense discrimination,” said Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY). “We are all better for their service.”

“We know about their 191 consecutive days in combat, from the trenches of France to the banks of the Reine,” said Schumer in his remarks.

“We know about their triumphs we know about their tragic losses, including 1,500 casualties, more than any American unit.”

The House Democratic leader also told the story of a private slight of stature but full of courage.

Henry Johnson, who weighed around 130 pounds and stood five feet and four inches tall, ended up “fighting off over 20 enemy troops with nothing more than a jammed rifle and a bolo knife,” according to Jeffries.

“He gave them hell,” Jeffries said, adding of the “brave, bold and beguiling patriots” that they also “risked everything fighting to protect freedoms they did not fully know.”

“The Germans named them the Hellfighters for their relentless spirit, the French decorated them,” added Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. “But in America they returned to racism and often to second-class citizenship — to a silence that lasted too long.”

“More than a century later we say their names,” she declared, “we honor their sacrifice we lift up their story as part of a great American story. A story written of black heroes.”