Son discovers WWI hero father, buried at Arlington cemetery

Jet, Jan 28, 2002

Herman Johnson believed his father, a heroic Black World War I soldier who singlehandedly fended off a German attack, lay in a pauper's grave unrecognized by the military.

Despite the egregious error, the family requested he still be awarded the Medal of Honor. They have been waiting since 1996 for final action on that request. However, their long wait has not been in vain.

Last year military officials in New York State researching Sgt. Henry Johnson's military service record discovered he was buried more than 70 years ago at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors!

And the late Johnson's son, now 85, accompanied by New York Gov. George Pataki, recently visited the newly discovered grave. "I am overwhelmed," Herman Johnson said. "I am extremely happy to know that my father is in a respectable grave."

As a teenager the younger Johnson was led to believe that his father had been buried in a pauper's cemetery paved over to make way for the Albany International Airport.

Johnson and military officials hope the discovery will help to get Henry Johnson the Medal of Honor.

The late Johnson of Albany, NY, joined the Army National Guard's "Harlem Hellfighter" unit during World War I and because of segregation he fought under the French who awarded him France's highest honor, the Croix de Guerre. According to Gov. Pataki, Johnson was the first American to receive the French accolade and was cited by President Theodore Roosevelt as one of the five bravest Americans during that War.

Yet, when Johnson died in 1929 in his mid-30s, he was poor and undecorated by the U.S. military.

State military officials researching his military service for the Medal of Honor last year came upon a clipping from a Black paper in upstate New York that mentioned his burial at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C.

Microfilm records at Arlington showed only a Sgt. William Henry Johnson, but a check of the paper records showed "William" had been crossed out and other records matched.