On February 17, 1919, the 369th Infantry Regiment — the Harlem Hellfighters — marched home through these blocks, not far from where you are now. More than a million New Yorkers lined Fifth Avenue and Lenox Avenue to welcome them back from France. The 369th was the first American regiment to reach the Rhine, fought in the trenches for 191 days without retreating a single inch, and earned more unit Croix de Guerre citations than any other American regiment.
The French awarded them medals because the United States Army, committed to segregation, would not fight alongside them. Their commander, Colonel William Hayward, had to beg the French to let his men into battle. They carried machine guns as long as 72 inches, gave German soldiers nightmares, and came home to a country that still would not let them sit in the front of a bus.
From this regiment came the great bandleader James Reese Europe, who brought jazz to France and was murdered by a fellow soldier the night before the parade. The parade route ran through these blocks. Picture a million people lining Lenox Avenue in front of you on that February day.