Celebrated at last: Henry Johnson, and the Golden 13

June 4, 2020 9:03 PM

On June 5, Albany, New York, commemorates the life and work of Henry Johnson, and awards the Henry Johnson Award for Distinguished Community Service to a community member who goes above and beyond the call of duty. While Johnson was one of the United State’s first heroes of World War I, he was among the last to be recognized by his country (Times Union) in any lasting fashion. He leads the ranks of forgotten black Americans with notable military records, like the Golden 13, the first black men to attend officer candidate school (The Daily Beast).

Jake Rossen wrote up a tribute to Henry Johnson, the One-Man Army Who Fought Off Dozens of German Soldiers During World War I (Mental Floss). He describing how he and the rest of the 15th New York National Guard Regiment (Wikipedia), which was comprised entirely of black soldiers, were relegated to basic labor at camp, before members of the Harlem Hellfighters joined the 161st Division of the French Army, to help France deal with their own shortage of men.

It was in this duty that Johnson, with minimal provisions, protected a fellow US soldier and single-handedly had prevented the Germans from breaking the French line. His heroism was retold in cartoon and lithograph, and France awarded him the Croix de guerre (Military wikia) with a special citation and a golden palm, one of France's highest awards for valor. He was the first American to receive the award. Back at home ...

The parade that honored the Harlem Hellfighters in February 1919 ran for seven miles, with Johnson leading the procession in an open-topped cab. But the Hellfighters could not march with their white counterparts.
...
Unfortunately, Johnson’s postwar life remains as murky as his earliest years. He reportedly received disability payments from the government as well as medical care, but it’s unknown to what extent that supported him or how badly his injuries kept him from employment opportunities.

Decades later, historians determined Johnson was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. With confirmation of the gravesite, Johnson also became eligible for and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in 2002 (Arlington Cemetary.net), and President Obama posthumously awarded him the Medal of Honor in 2015.

The Navy was more segregated, and for longer, than other branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. As recounted by Dan. C Goldberg for Time Magazine:

A black man had graduated the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1877 (Henry Ossian Flipper, on Georgia Encyclopedia) and the Army had its first black general in 1940 (Benjamin Oliver Davis Sr., on Black History Now). But when World War II began, African Americans were not even allowed to enlist in the Navy’s general service. They were relegated to messmen: cooks and waiters whose chief function was to serve whites. Just two years later, thanks to pressure from civil rights leaders and the black press, the Navy told these 16 enlistees — the sons and grandsons of slaves — that they would attempt to integrate the officer corps and prove wrong the prevailing wisdom, which held that their race was incapable of discipline and unworthy of rank.

During World War II, a group of African American sailors was chosen to integrate the Naval Officer Corps, forever changing what was possible in the U.S. Navy (Politico). Initially, sixteen black enlisted men gathered at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Illinois (US Naval Institute). Despite the demanding pace, all sixteen passed the course, yet only twelve were commissioned as ensigns, and a thirteenth was made a warrant officer. They were John Walter Reagan, Jesse Walter Arbor, Dalton Louis Baugh, Frank Ellis Sublett, Graham Edward Martin, Charles Byrd Lear, Phillip George Barnes, Reginald E. Goodwin, James Edward Hair (later going by Hare), Samuel Edward Barnes, George Clinton Cooper, William Sylvester White, and Dennis Denmark Nelson. As recounted in The Navy's Naval Station Great Lakes' History webpage

In January 1944, 12 ensigns and one warrant officer were appointed and sent to [the segregated] Camp Smalls* for indoctrination and training. Their officers and instructors, sadly, were not all on their side, but the young men were bright and determined.

They stuck it out through every difficulty. Finally, the day came for the final comprehensive test of Officer CandidateSchool. When their test results went to the Pentagon, there was consternation and disbelief. The Golden 13 had scored the highest grades that had ever been recorded in Navy history. The record still stands.

Despite those grades, Navy policy prevented them from being assigned to combatant ships. Initially, they were forced to follow white officers of the same rank all day, while acting as junior officers. Those early black officers wound up being detailed to run labor gangs ashore.

As Dan Goldberg wrote for The Daily Beast,

For more than three decades these men, who had broken one of the most intractable color barriers in the Navy, were known only as “those Negro officers” or, later, as “those black officers.”

But Dennis Nelson, the only member of the Golden Thirteen to make a career out of the Navy, never stopped pushing for more recognition, and by the late 1970s, a decade after the civil rights movement had forever changed the status of black people in the United States, the Navy was newly proud of their accomplishment and ready to show them off. The surviving officers were feted as a symbol of racial integration, of progress, of pride.

The first reunion, which took two years to plan, was held in Berkeley, California, in 1977.

The Chicago Crusader has a few photos of the remaining members of the Golden 13 at later reunions, in addition to stories from their experiences, taken from Paul Stillwell’s “The Golden Thirteen: Recollections of the First Black Naval Officers” (Amazon; Goodreads), which was written with help from James E. Hare, Jr.

In 1987, the intake center at Great Lakes Naval Training Station was dedicated in honor of the Golden Thirteen (Historical Marker Database), and named the “Golden Thirteen” Recruit Inprocessing Center.

In 2006, Frank Ellis Sublett, the last of the Golden Thirteen, passed.

In 2011, Indianapolis commemorated Lieutenant Junior Grade Graham Edward Martin Park (Indianapolis Recorder).

*Camp Robert Smalls was named after Robert Smalls, the enslaved man who sailed friends and family to freedom (PBS), for taking C.S.S. Planter to a Union blockade and providing information and supplies from Planter. He went on to engage in approximately 17 military actions, including an attack where he assumed command of the Planter when the demoralized white captain hid in the “coal-bunker.” He went on to serve five terms in the U.S. House, representing South Carolina (History.House.gov).

posted by filthy light thief (3 comments total)

Not taking anything away from their achievements, but the Golden 13 are the U.S. Navy's first black officers, not necessarily the first black officers to attend any officer candidate school.
posted by NotLost at 6:25 AM on June 5, 2020

Good point. I didn't summarize their achievement well above the fold.

For whatever it's worth, it's hard to find any record of who the first black officers where who attended officer candidate school. Within the Navy, I think the Golden 16 were the first admitted. From the Chicago Crusader article, it sounds like the Marine Corps was similarly racist:

Then-Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox was opposed to allowing Black and white sailors to train and live together while they served their country.

Knox was also opposed to having Black officers.

The Navy held firm to not allowing Black sailors into ratings other than messmen. They feared that if Blacks advanced to officer status, they would not be strong leaders over their subordinate white sailors. Blacks who had risen to chief steward still had no authority over lower-rated enlisted white men in the general services.

In the 1930s, Congress appointed two Black civilians as midshipmen to the prestigious U.S. Naval Academy, but white officers at Annapolis soon encouraged them to seek careers in other fields.

In 1941, a committee that was established to investigate opportunities for Blacks and the Marine Corps concluded that no changes needed to be instituted with regard to race.

So I think few, if any, black men would have been admitted to officer candidate school, when the white men in power were so afraid of black men holding positions of power equal to, or above, white men.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:30 AM on June 5, 2020

So many stories are just waiting to be told!
posted by kinnakeet at 10:38 AM on June 5, 2020