….and exporters of American music and culture to Europe
Check out this great post by Matt Fratus on Coffee or Die, the blogging arm of Black Rifle Coffee Company: https://coffeeordie.com/harlem-hellfighters/
A few characters of note in this post include Henry Johnson and Needham Roberts, who “would be the first two Americans — and first two privates — to receive France’s highest honor, the Croix de Guerre. Johnson’s award included the Gold Palm for extraordinary valor.” Also of note is the aptly-named James Reese Europe, one of the few African-Americans to be commissioned as an officer at the time, leader of the Hellfighter’s regimental’s band, and who would go on to post-war stardom as a jazz musician.
Europe’s obituary (linked in the Coffee or Die article and found here: http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/jreurope.htm) reads like an epic poem:
“Europe is credited with bringing ragtime out of the bordellos and juke joints into mainstream society and elevating African American music into an accepted art form. He was an unrelenting fighter for the dignity of African American musicians and for them to be paid on the same scale as their white peers.
The French government called him a battlefield hero. Before the war, however, he was a household name in New York’s music world and on the dance scene nationwide. According to books about ragtime and early jazz, James Reese Europe was the most respected black bandleader of the “teens” when the United States entered World War I. Both his battlefield heroism and his music fell into obscurity after his untimely and tragic death at 39 on May 9, 1919.
The son of a former slave father and a “free” mother, Europe was born in Mobile, Ala., on Feb. 22, 1881. Lorraine and Henry Europe were both musicians and encouraged their children’s talents…
He enlisted as a private in… the 369th Infantry, which the French nicknamed “The Harlem Hellfighters” after the black soldiers showed their mettle in combat.
The Harlem Hellfighters would serve 191 days in combat, longer than any other U.S. unit, and reputedly never relinquished an inch of ground. The men earned 170 French Croix de Guerres for bravery. One of their commanding officers, Col. Benjamin O. Davis Sr., would become the Army’s first black general in 1940.
Europe was gassed while leading a daring nighttime raid against the Germans. While recuperating in a French hospital, he penned the song “One Patrol in No Man’s Land.”
Europe and his musicians were ordered to the rear in August 1918 to entertain thousands of soldiers in camps and hospitals. They also performed for high-ranking military and civilian officials and for French citizens in cities across France. After Germany surrendered, the Hellfighters Band became popular performing throughout Europe. When the regiment returned home in the spring of 1919, it paraded up New York’s 5th Avenue to Harlem led by the band playing its raggedy tunes to the delight of more than a million spectators.
Back in America, Europe found himself even more popular than before he went to war. He recorded “One Patrol in No Man’s Land”; it became a nationwide hit.
Europe ironically survived being shot at and gassed in the trenches of France only to die on May 9, 1919, at the hands of one of his own men. A deranged drummer named Herbert Wright cut Europe’s jugular vein with a penknife while the bandleader was preparing for a show at Mechanics Hall in Boston. Wright had been angry because he thought Europe favored his twin brother over him.
R. Reid Badger noted in his book “A Life in Ragtime” that Europe received the first public funeral for a black man in New York City on May 13, 1919. Thousands of fans, black and white, turned out to pay their respect.”
Check out this short vid for a quick history of Europe and the Hellfighters: