Uncle Clarkie Everett and the Harlem Hellfighter - Sergeant Henry Johnson

Shirley Everett-Dicko

 Sergeant Henry Johnson of the 369th Infantry ("Harlem Hellfighters"), was one of the most celebrated soldiers in World War I. He and the 369th Infantry Regiment are legends. The 369th Infantry's regimental band, under the direction of Lt. James Reese Europe, is credited with introducing jazz music to European audiences. The Harlem Hellfighters | History  

In 1918 Sergeant Henry Johnson was the first American, Black, or White, ever to be awarded a medal from France in World War I. He posthumously received the Medal of Honor from former President Barack Obama in a 2015, White House ceremony. In 1996, President Bill Clinton posthumously presented Sgt. Henry Johnson with the Purple Heart. And, in 2002, he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.  

Our uncle Clarkie Everett was the second vice president of the Albany District 369th Veterans Association.  He was part of a group of veterans who battled many obstacles of racism for decades to get the state of New York and the U.S. government to recognize Henry Johnson’s heroism and honors due him. Uncle Clarkie was involved in these efforts as early as 1972, and instrumental in fundraising for the Henry Johnson Memorial.  

After years of challenging work finally on Veterans Day 1991, Northern Boulevard in Albany was renamed Henry Johnson Boulevard; a park was renamed Henry Johnson Park, and a statue was erected. Then in 1996, in a joint project by the City of Albany, New York and the Albany District 369th Veterans Association, the Henry Johnson memorial was erected in Washington Park; the district’s name is on the center panel of the monument, and Uncle Clarkie’s is the 7th name listed on the right side of the same panel. 

Here Uncle Clarkie Everett is pictured with the plaster bust created by Capital Region sculptor Vince Forte, Sr. This was the model used to create the bronze bust dedicated in 1996, in Albany, New York’s Washington Park. It sits atop a monument that my ancestor worked hard to put there. 

In 2018, an annual Henry Johnson Day and a community service award was established; a charter school and a ROTC scout were also named in honor of Henry Johnson. Uncle Clarkie was a deacon and a founding member of Mt Moriah Missionary Baptist church. His younger brother, my daddy Cleveland A Everett, was the Pastor of the church. How proper that the church sits at the corner of Henry Johnson Boulevard and Spruce Street.  

Now, about Sgt Henry Johnson and what he did to finally earn his just rewards. The remarks below are from President Obama in 2015, at the ceremony in the White House honoring Henry Johnson with the medal of Honor in a ceremony attended by Uncle Clarkie’s fellow members of the Albany District 369th Veterans Association.  

President Barack Obama granted Henry Johnson the Medal of Honor.
The President Awards the Medal of Honor Posthumously to World War I Veterans 

 The citation reads, 
 
“The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, March 3, 1863, has awarded in the name of Congress the Medal of Honor to 
 
Private Henry Johnson 
United States Army 
 
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty: 
 
Private Johnson distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a member of Company C, 369th Infantry Regiment, 93rd Division, American Expeditionary Forces, during combat operations against the enemy on the front lines of the Western Front in France on May 15, 1918. Private Johnson and another soldier were on sentry duty at a forward outpost when they received a surprise attack from a German raiding party consisting of at least 12 soldiers. While under intense enemy fire and despite receiving significant wounds, Private Johnson mounted a brave retaliation, resulting in several enemy casualties. When his fellow soldier was badly wounded, Private Johnson prevented him from being taken prisoner by German forces. Private Johnson exposed himself to grave danger by advancing from his position to engage an enemy soldier in hand-to-hand combat. Wielding only a knife and gravely wounded himself, Private Johnson continued fighting and took his Bolo knife and stabbed it through an enemy soldier’s head. Displaying great courage, Private Johnson held back the enemy force until they retreated. Private Johnson’s extraordinary heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army.” 

In 2023, President Joe Biden renamed Louisiana's Fort Polk to Fort Johnson in honor of Sgt. Henry Johnson. Unfortunately, in 2025, President Trump changed the name back to Fort Polk. As the Trump administration rebrands several military bases, the legacy of Albany World War I hero Henry Johnson is a casualty | WAMC   

Clarkie Everett (seated) and unknown Army friend.

​Uncle Clarkie was a World War II veteran. When he was twenty years old, he was drafted into the segregated U.S. Army in 1943, to serve in World War II.  He was stationed in south-east Asia in Burma, transporting war supplies to the allied forces along the Ledo and Burma Road. After the Pearl Harbor attack Japan invaded Burma and closed the Allied supply line along the Burma Road into China. He was a survivor of the Burma Campaign, the China-Burma-India Theatre in the second World War called the “Forgotten War”.   

A new Ledo Road - later renamed Stillwell Road, had to be rebuilt. The Allied forces would use the new road to deliver necessary wartime supplies to China and aid them in their fight against the Japanese.  It was a two-year campaign to re-open the land route to China. There were 35,000 local Indian, Burmese and Chinese workers. Sixty percent of the 15,000 American soldiers also involved were African Americans.  
  
Six African American companies worked on the construction of the Ledo Road. The new road was carved through jungles, swamps, and over steep mountains. The troops had to deal with severe heat, humidity, dangerous tropical diseases, tiger and leopard attacks, poisonous snakes, including cobras and pythons.  
 
The completed road was 1,079 miles (about the distance from Florida to New York City) long. The first convoy of 113 vehicles was driven by a Black man. The trucks had to climb nearly 4,600 feet (about 1.4 km) up, around narrow curves and cliff edges. Uncle Clarkie was one of the truck drivers that carried 129,000 tons of supplies from India to China in the first six months of the road opening. The road was considered an impossible engineering marvel. Burma is now called Myanmar.  

Uncle Clarkie was honorably discharged from the army in 1945. The African American soldiers who had helped to build the Ledo Road received no recognition for their achievements in Asia. Finally in February 2004, representatives of the US Department of Defense marked Black History Month at Florida A & M University in Tallahassee by officially recognizing the veterans and their efforts in India and Myanmar. By then, most of the veterans were long dead. Uncle Clarkie had died three years earlier in 2001. 

According to the website Facts and Details the Pentagon could find only 12 to invite to the ceremony in Tallahassee, and only six were well enough to travel, the American Forces Press Service reported at the time. Most of the veterans had died. 

Albany County Executive Mike Breslin and the Honor-A-Veteran Committee commemorated World War II veteran Clarkie Everett. A ceremony was held on Tuesday, February 3, 2004, at the North Albany Post at 35 North 1st Street in Albany, recognizing an outstanding African American veteran as part of Albany County’s celebration of Black History Month. 
 
Sadly, Uncle Clarkie, who passed away on August 18, 2001, at the age of 78, did not live to see his military service honored or his efforts in honoring Sgt. Henry Johnson fully recognized, but thanks to his hard work future generations will forever read his name on Albany’s most famous monument and know what he did. 

More links to Sgt. Henry Johnson and the 369th Harlem Hellfighters:
WMHT Specials | Henry Johnson: A Tale of Courage | PBS
 WWII: African American Soldiers and the Ledo Burma Road 1945
The Harlem Hellfighters' Great War (2017) | FULL MOVIE | History Documentary
Hellfighters: Harlem’s Heroes of World War One | Historical Documentary | Lucasfilm
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