THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 11, 1994 TAG: 9412100039
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEPHANIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Long : 102 lines
THE FRENCH called Henry Johnson and the World War I soldiers in the 369th Infantry the ``Hellfighters of Harlem.''
They thought he had a blaze of fury and a glint of fear in his eyes as he furiously fought off the Germans that raided Allied trenches in the early morning of May 19, 1918.
Legend has Johnson running out of ammunition and slashing a German soldier with a razor. In the end, the young man is said to have helped kill or capture 24 Germans.
``By all accounts, Henry Johnson should have won a Medal of Honor,'' for the battle, said John V. Quarstein, director of the War Memorial Museum of Virginia in Newport News, as he pointed to a lithograph depicting the World War I trench raid in France.
He didn't.
Instead, the French honored the private, making him the first American in World War I decorated with the Croix de Guerre, France's highest combat award.
While his exploits became legendary in the military community, he was almost forgotten in history like many other black men who fought for the United States as early as the the Revolutionary War.
The museum is commemorating the struggles and heroism of Johnson and other blacks in a new, permanent gallery, ``Marches towards freedom: the black military experience in America.''
The museum gallery, which opened in November, displays some rare documents, such as the only reproduction of the 1783 letter certifying James Bowser's entitlement to 160 acres in then-Nansemond County. Bowser earned the right to buy the land after serving as a private in the Virginia Continental Line during the Revolutionary War. Even today, Bowser's descendants still live on some of the land he bought. But for black troops, there was little relief from racism and Jim Crow.
Take Capt. Oliver Hazard Perry, who was hastily trying to gather up men just before the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. He pleaded for more men, and got some, but to his dismay, he received a ``motley crew of blacks, soldiers and boys.''
Commodore Isaac Chauncey rebuked Perry in text on the museum's wall:
``I have yet to learn that the color of a man's skin or the cut and trimmings of his coat can affect a man's qualifications or usefulness. . . . ''
Although heroic, blacks were rarely honored for their exploits in the early American wars. The gallery has collected some of those awards, including the presentation sword given to Col. Charles Young by the 9th Ohio Regiment in the Spanish-American War, and another rare find: one of 197 Butler medals that General Benjamin F. Butler had minted at his own expense for blacks' valor during the Civil War.
Many Southern politicians opposed drafting blacks in World War I. But the U.S. Army needed men - white or black.
W.E.B. Du Bois and other black leaders encouraged blacks to join up, thinking a fight for world freedom might ease racism here.
They must have been disappointed.
Facilities were segregated, and most blacks never saw combat. Many were made servants.
The most decorated unit in the Army during World War I was the 369th, which fought with the French. The Army, unwilling to put blacks into combat, handed them over to the Europeans, who readily accepted.
``The French didn't really care about their race,'' said Quarstein, the museum director.
The unit helped repel Germany's advance in France, and later became the first U.S. Army unit to enter Germany after World War I, Quarstein said.
Blacks marveled at the Europeans' lack of racism. In World War II, Sgt. Frederick L. Sharpe of Petersburg wrote from Italy to his mother that ``One fellow told me he had no idea the colored American girls were so beautiful.''
That letter and a photograph of ``Luckie'' Sharpe and the 602d Ammunition Co. at Fort George Meade in Maryland hang from the museum's wall.
Although still segregated in World War II, blacks began training as pilots for the first time, with the War Department's approval. After instruction at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, the all-black units of the 99th Pursuit Squadron saw heroic service.
``Keep Them Flying!'' shouts a WWII poster showing a black aviator.
Nearby is a photo of Master Sgt. Paul L. McPherson, a Hampton resident who was drafted into the Army in 1941 and assigned to the Musician's Corp. He is from a long line of military men. His grandfather fought in the Civil War, along with his great uncle, in the 26th Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops.
``That old animosity in the South was pretty strong in the '40s,'' said McPherson, who was visiting the museum last week. ``But through it all now, there were some good, white officers with Christian faith in them who saw that black soldiers were treated fairly,'' said McPherson.
One of the last items on display is the uniform of General Colin Powell, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The museum's staff wrote twice to Powell before he sent over the Desert Storm clothing.
``He rose above being excluded from service to become the highest ranking officer in the armed services,'' said Quarstein. ``I think he is a tremendous symbol of how democracy works.'' ILLUSTRATION: JIM WALKER/Staff color photos
Hampton resident Paul L. McPherson stands by a picture of his
grandfather, Jacob Johnson, who fought in the Civil War.
Exhibits include this rare World War II poster of a black airman.
by CNB