WWI Harlem Hellfighters awarded Congressional Gold Medal
Published: 5 September 2025
By Claire Barrett and J.D. Simkins
via the MilitaryTimes website
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Soldiers of the 369th regiment, dubbed the Harlem Hellfighters, were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal over a century after their actions on the battlefield. (NPS)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on Sept. 3 to the Harlem Hellfighters, one of the most renowned Black combat units of World War I.
Descendants of those soldiers were in attendance to accept the recognition, Congress’ highest civilian award, on behalf of their ancestors’ actions during a ceremony in Washington, according to a DOD press release.
The approval of the medal was passed in Congress on Aug. 9, 2021, during the Biden administration.
Highly decorated, the 369th Infantry Regiment was initially nicknamed the “Black Rattlers” for the rattlesnake insignia that adorned their uniforms.
The French called the unit “Men of Bronze,” while it is believed that they gained their “Hellfighter” moniker from their German foes owing to their courage and ferocity in combat, according to the National Museum of American History and Culture.
The Hellfighters, like many non-white demographics in the 20th century, were forced to fight a war on two fronts. Before, during and well after the carnage of WWI, racism encountered by Black soldiers by their white American counterparts was severe.
U.S. Gen. John G. Pershing even went as far as authorizing the distribution of a pamphlet, titled “Secret Information Concerning Black American Troops,” advising America’s French allies against relying on — or even associating with — their Black peers.
In his correspondence, Pershing claimed the men of the 369th were “inferior” to white soldiers, acted as a “constant menace to the American” and didn’t possess a “civic and professional conscience.”
Burdened by a misguided reputation, the Harlem Hellfighters were initially relegated to labor-intensive duties. That was until they were ordered into battle in 1918 and assigned to the French Army, who seemed to care far less about race than their American allies.
It would be among the 16th Division of the French Army that the Harlem Hellfighters would learn how to survive the slog of trench warfare.
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