Harlem's Rattlers program transcript.pdf

Jeffrey Sammons & John Morrow, Jr., Harlem's Rattlers and the Great War: The Undaunted 369th Regiment and the African American Quest for Equality  

From its beginnings in the 15th New York National Guard through its training in the explosive atmosphere in the South, its singular performance in the French army during World War I, and the pathos of postwar adjustment—Harlem's Rattlers and the Great War reveals as never before the details of the 369th's experience, the poignant history of some of its heroes, its place in the story of both World War I and the African American campaign for equality, and its full importance in our understanding of American history. Sponsored by the United States World War One Centennial Commission.

When on May 15, 1918 a French lieutenant warned Henry Johnson of the 369th to move back because of a possible enemy raid, Johnson reportedly replied: "I'm an American, and I never retreat."

The story, even if apocryphal, captures the mythic status of the Harlem Rattlers, the African-American combat unit that grew out of the 15th New York National Guard, who were said to have never lost a man to capture or a foot of ground that had been taken. It also, in its insistence on American identity, points to a truth at the heart of this book—more than fighting to make the world safe for democracy, the black men of the 369th fought to convince America to live up to its democratic promise.

It is this aspect of the storied regiment's history—its place within the larger movement of African Americans for full citizenship in the face of virulent racism—that Harlem's Rattlers and the Great War brings to the fore.

With sweeping vision, historical precision, and unparalleled research, this book will stand as the definitive study of the 369th. Though discussed in numerous histories and featured in popular culture (most famously the film Stormy Weather and the novel Jazz), the 369th has become more a matter of mythology than grounded, factually accurate history—a situation that authors Jeffrey T. Sammons and John H. Morrow, Jr. set out to right.

Their book—which eschews the regiment's famous nickname, the "Harlem Hellfighters," a name never embraced by the unit itself—tells the full story of the self-proclaimed Harlem Rattlers. Combining the "fighting focus" of military history with the insights of social commentary, Harlem's Rattlers and the Great War reveals the centrality of military service and war to the quest for equality as it details the origins, evolution, combat exploits, and postwar struggles of the 369th.

The authors take up the internal dynamics of the regiment as well as external pressures, paying particular attention to the environment created by the presence of both black and white officers in the unit. They also explore the role of women—in particular, the Women's Auxiliary of the 369th—as partners in the struggle for full citizenship.

* Book description courtesy University Press of Kansas

JEFFREY T. SAMMONS, PhD is an accomplished historian, author, and professor of history at New York University, where he has served on the faculty since 1989. A 1971 magna cum laude graduate of Rutgers College, Dr. Sammons earned a masters degree in history from Tufts University in 1974 and a doctorate in American history from the University of North Carolina in 1982. He has written widely on the subject of sport and race, and is author of the critically-acclaimed Beyond the Ring: The Role of Boxing in American Society. Long involved in community service and civil rights initiatives, Sammons has served as director of the Julius Chambers Invitational; as a board member of the Clearview Legacy Foundation; as a member of the Museum Committee of the United States Golf Association; and as a member of the USGA/PGA African-American Golf Archive working group. He also serves as a History Adviser to the United States World War One Centennial Commission. Read more.

JOHN H. MORROW, JR., PhD is Franklin Professor of History at The University of Georgia, and is a nationally recognized authority on early military aviation. He is author of The Great War in the Air: Military Aviation from 1909 to 1921—widely considered to be the definitive work on the subject—and The Great War: An Imperial History; and is editor of A Yankee Ace in the RAF: The World War I Letters of Captain Bogart Rogers. A graduate of Swarthmore College and The University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a doctorate in Modern European History, Morrow is an award-winning educator and academic who served 17 years on the faculty at the University of Tennesee, Knoxville before joining UGA in 1988. He was the Charles A. Lindbergh Visiting Professor at the National Air and Space Museum in 1989, and has been an invited lecturer at such institutions as the National War College, the Air War College, and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point—for which the Department of the Army awarded him its Outstanding Civilian Service Medal. Read more