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More than 350,000 African Americans served in the Great War. The majority were assigned to labor and stevedore battalions—digging ditches, building roads and supplying the front lines. Throughout the course of WWI, only about one in 10 African Americans in the U.S. military served in a combat role based on leadership decisions at the time

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The 369th spent 191 consecutive days on the front lines. Which means they saw more action than any other American regiment. They were also the first Allied unit to reach the Rhine.

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Even the weapons used by the Hellfighters were segregated. White people would refused to use the same weapons that the black soldiers did.

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The all-black unit, initially sent to provide support to the French, spent more time in the trenches during the war than any other US unit.

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The 369th Infantry Regiment was the first US unit to arrive in France during World War I.

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Having arrived in the port of Brest on December 27, 1917, they were sent to Saint-Nazaire, hundreds of miles from the front, and put to work on engineering projects that would pave the way for the larger body of U.S. troops to come.

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In October 1917, they were ordered to Camp Wadsworth in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and experienced harassment and verbal abuse on the daily.

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The Hellfighters originated as the 15th New York (Colored) Infantry Regiment, a National Guard unit. Members of the African American community in New York City’s Harlem district had been asking for the creation of a homegrown military unit, but white politicians blocked several attempts at establishing one.

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The 369th’s battlefield prowess was almost overshadowed by its contribution to music, however, the Hellfighters’ regimental band was credited with bringing jazz to Europe.

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The French government decorated the entire unit with the Croix de Guerre, its highest award for bravery, as well as 170 additional individual medals for valour.