Liberian Dreams, West African Nightmare: The Life of Henry W. Johnson, Two Volume Set: Part I; Part II (Rochester History, Fall, 2004, Vol. LXVI, No. 4; Winter, 2005, Vol. LXVII, No. 1)

24; 20 pp. Two volume set. William Henry Johnson (circa July 15, 1892 - July 1, 1929), commonly known as Henry 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 and 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 and 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. In 1918, the French awarded Johnson with a Croix de guerre with star and bronze palm. He was the first U.S. soldier in World War I to receive that honor. Johnson died poor and in obscurity in 1929. There was a long struggle to achieve awards for him from the U.S. military. He was finally 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 existing namesake, Confederate General Leonidas Polk. The post was renamed in Johnson's honor in a ceremony on June 5, 2023.