For This Black World War I Regiment, Battle Was On Two Fronts

I recently found out about this article from DAV Magazine about Harlem’s own 15th New York National Guard Regiment, who volunteered to serve as part of the American Expeditionary Force in World War One.

It’s an amazing unit made up of family, friends and neighbors, all Black men who wanted to serve their nation. They deployed to France as the 369th Infantry Regiment and served with great distinction earning the name of the “Harlem Hellfighters.”

Unfortunately, a racially integrated military wouldn’t come until after the Second World War and like so many other minority troops, the men of the 369th faced discrimination during and after their service.

True heroes, they are a distinguished part of our American story and have been honored, belatedly, for their contributions to this great nation. While there have been multiple individual awards, including the first American awarded the French Croix de Guerre, the unit was honored with the Congressional Gold Medal in 2021.

Please read this article by Elizabeth DePompei about their story at www.dav.org/learn-more/news/2026/for-this-black-world-war-i-regiment-battle-was-on-two-fronts.

This entry was posted
on Sunday, February 8th, 2026 at 20:00 and is filed under History.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.