William Henry Johnson. (circa July 15, 1892 – July 1, 1929), Commonly known as Henry (Black Death) Johnson, Was a United States Army soldier who performed heroically in the first African American unit of the United States Army to engage in combat in World War I. On watch in the Argonne Forest on May 14, 1918, he fought off a German raid in hand to hand combat, killing multiple German soldiers & rescuing a fellow soldier while suffering 21 wounds, in an action that was brought to the nation’s attention by coverage in the New York World & The Saturday Evening Post later that year. On June 2, 2015, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama in a ceremony at the White House.
The French awarded him with a Croix de guerre with star & bronze palm in 1918. He was the first U.S. soldier in World War I to receive that honor. Johnson died poor & in obscurity in 1929. There was a long struggle to achieve awards for him from the U.S. military. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart in 1996. In 2002, the U.S. military awarded him the Distinguished Service Cross. Previous efforts to secure the Medal of Honor failed, but in 2015 he was posthumously honored with the award. On May 24, 2022, The Naming Commission recommended that Fort Polk in Leesville, Louisiana, be renamed Fort Johnson after Henry Johnson, rather than its previous namesake, Confederate General Leonidas Polk. The post was renamed in Johnson’s honor in a ceremony on June 5, 2023.
