"Everybody's head high, and we were all proud to be Americans, proud to be black, and proud to be in the 15th New York Infantry." And the band was playing," Miller told an interviewer for the 1977 documentary Men of Bronze. "That day, the sun was shining, and we were marching. Decades after World War I, he could still recall marching through formerly German-occupied territory.
Melville Miller was 16 when he joined the Harlem Hellfighters, which was first formed as the 15th New York National Guard regiment. 'Proud To Be Americans, Proud To Be Black' Image: Caanan White/Courtesy of Broadway Books They returned home from Europe in 1919 to a parade along Fifth Avenue in New York City. Still, Sanders adds that some French officers doubted whether the African-American soldiers had enough courage to go into battle. The French army absorbed the Hellfighters to help replenish their own ranks, finally giving them the opportunity to fight that the U.S. " did not think that African-Americans had the intelligence to think clearly," Brooks says. Instead, they, and other African-American soldiers, were put to work unloading ships. Army kept them from marching to the front lines in France.
Their training prepared them for combat, but racial segregation in the U.S. "I don't think any soldier, short of a samurai, has shown more restraint than the Hellfighters at Spartanburg." "What separates a soldier from a civilian is discipline - the notion of mental control and the notion of restraint," Brooks adds. Image: Hansi Lo Wang/NPRīut in the end, the Hellfighters left town without a major incident. Reginald Sanders, former commander of the 369th Sustainment Brigade, and The Harlem Hellfighters author Max Brooks tour the 369th Regiment Armory in New York City. the first state to secede from the Union."Ĭol. "The whole nation was keyed up for another race riot, and you're sending northern black troops to train in South Carolina. Tense standoffs arose between the Hellfighters and white residents in Spartanburg. Just weeks earlier, the arrival of another African-American regiment sparked a race riot in Houston. Their first battle was during training camp in Spartanburg, S.C., in October 1917. But Sanders hasn't forgotten the unit's early history of fighting on the front lines in France and in the U.S. Today's Hellfighters specialize in combat logistics in places like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Mali. "Our enemies gave us our name, is an honor." Reginald Sanders, a former commander of the 369th Sustainment Brigade, which descended from the original World War I unit. "We did not give ourselves our name ," says Col. The Hellfighters wore steel Adrian helmets issued by the French army.
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