Henry Johnson's Paradox: A Soldier's Story (1997)

Henry Johnson's Paradox: A Soldier's StoryCASUALTYHe was a soldier in army.But he doesn't walk like one.He walks like his soldieringDays are done.Son!...Son!Langston HughesScholars have acknowledged Henry Johnson of Albany, New York, as one of World War I's most widely acclaimed military heroes. Homage is paid to Johnson, warrior, in many military histories or in books about African American experience. The scholarship on Johnson usually focuses on three extraordinary minutes in his life, three dramatic minutes during an international conflict, ignoring everyday events in life of Johnson, ordinary worker and disabled veteran. I started to examine Johnson's life before and after those violent three minutes, in order to understand social and cultural phenomena that molded his character, for individuals such as he are often heart and soul of a community's past. The purpose of this essay is to investigate Johnson's heroic yet tragic story and to illuminate his paradox in a nation that proclaims egalitarian ideals.Johnson was born in 1897, black and poor, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, one year after United States Supreme Court upheld state-ordered segregation and doctrine of separate but equal in landmark case of Plessy vs. Ferguson.(2) Reconstruction had formerly ended twenty years before, halting nation's trend toward racial equality. After reconstruction period, African Americans faced a resurgent white supremacy that threatened their spiritual and physical survival. The racism of government policy was sanctioned by scientists and scholars, who argued that blacks represented lowest order of humanity. Lynchings claimed nearly 200 lives a year in 1890s. Popular culture reinforced stereotypes and incited racial hatred. D.W. Griffith's infamous movie The Birth of a Nation (1915) played in packed theaters throughout country.In this context, Johnson, while still a child, migrated north during first decade of twentieth century, as move from countryside to city started to become central feature of African American experience.(3) For first time, thousands of blacks labored in industries in Northeast, and black industrial worker emerged as a new figure on American landscape. In Albany, where black population remained small at three percent, Johnson found work as a baggage handler on New York Central Railroad at Union Station, joining a small group of African Americans who toiled as red caps and porters.Albany's Progressive era black population has not yet found its historian. Not much is known about Johnson, but what little information there is reveals something about voluntary associations in Albany's African American community. Johnson lived on Monroe Street, a neighborhood of blacks and Italian immigrants, in which African American presence can be traced back to early decades of nineteenth century. According to his brother, Johnson belonged to a church and was a member of Colored Benevolent Society.(4)To many black males, military service represented a means to escape their status as dregs of society. Young men unable to bear daily degradation of racial oppression often enlisted in army. The army was segregated, but it welcomed black recruits. Black soldiers fought in campaigns against Indian people; they made a distinguished military record in Spanish-American war and then were used to suppress ensuing Filipino war of independence -- a role that gave rise to wry saying that blacks had shouldered the white man's burden.Johnson chose to follow this military tradition, so full of irony and contradictions, volunteering for army on June 5, 1917, only two months after war was declared on April 6. Three months later, on September 17, 1917, Johnson married Edna Jackson of Albany, his former neighbor on Monroe Street. …