1. The Chicago Defender of 02 22, 1919Google Scholar estimated the crowd at two million, but the consensus seems to be nearer to half that number. New York's daily newspapers, as well as the national weekly black press, gave extensive coverage to the parade. The most comprehensive account appeared in the New York World of 02 18, 1919Google Scholar, a reprinting of which constitutes the chapter entitled “Homecoming Heroes” in Sweeney, Allison's History of the American Negro in the Great War (1919; rept. Negro University Press, 1969), pp. 267–74Google Scholar.

2. From Harlem to the Rhine: The Story of New York's Colored Volunteers (New York: Covici and Friede, 1936)Google Scholar by Arthur W. Little, one of the regiment's senior officers, is the standard history. William Miles' excellent documentary film, Men of Bronze (1977)Google Scholar, is especially valuable for its interviews with four veterans of the 369th. In addition to Sweeney, 's HistoryGoogle Scholar, which includes a full listing of the officers and men awarded the Croix de Guerre for gallantry in action (pp. 142–45), useful information is also contained in Scott, Emmett, Scott's Official History of the American Negro in the World War (Washington, D.C.: n.p., 1919)Google Scholar, and Greene, Robert, Black Defenders of America 1775–1973 (Chicago: Johnson, 1974).Google Scholar

3. “New York Gives Ovation to Its Black Fighters,” New York Herald, 02 18, 1919.Google Scholar

4. “Old 15th Regiment Given Rousing Reception,” New York Age, 02 22, 1919.Google Scholar

5. World, 02 18, 1919Google Scholar, reprinted in Sweeney, , History, p. 268.Google Scholar

6. See “Fifth Av. Cheers Negro Veterans,” New York Times, 02 18, 1919Google Scholar, and “New York City Acclaims Veterans of the ‘Fighting 15th,’” Philadelphia Tribune, 02 22, 1919.Google Scholar Hayward is quoted in the World, reprinted in Sweeney, , History, p. 268.Google Scholar

7. See “Throngs Pay Tribute to Heroic 15th,” New York Tribune, 02 18, 1919.Google Scholar

8. World, 02 18, 1919Google Scholar, reprinted in Sweeney, , History, p. 267.Google Scholar The front page of the New York Times on the morning of February 17 announced that it was the “City's Negro Fighters” who would parade that day. “Wild cheers greet city's own negro regiment”, read the banner headlines of the New York Herald on the 18th.

9. See the editorial page of the New York Tribune, 02 18, 1919.Google Scholar

10. See “The 369th Swings Up Fifth Avenue,” in Katz, William L., ed., Eyewitness: The Negro in American History (New York: Pitman, 1967), p. 140.Google Scholar

11. See the New York Times, 02 18, 1919Google Scholar, parts of which are reprinted in the Philadelphia Tribune of 02 22, 1919.Google Scholar

12. New York Herald, 02 18, 1919.Google Scholar

13. World, reprinted in Sweeney, , History, p. 268.Google Scholar

14. New York Age, 02 22, 1919.Google Scholar

15. Miller was one of four veterans of the regiment interviewed for the 1977 documentary film, Men of Bronze.

16. New york Age, 02 22, 1919.Google Scholar The papers were in general agreement about the three major attractions, though not about which among them received the greatest attention.

17. See the World, 02 18, 1919Google Scholar, reprinted in Sweeney, , History, p. 270Google Scholar, the New York Herald, and the New York Times of the same date. In addition to his broken leg, Hayward was also still recovering from the effects of a German gas attack. As early as August of 1917, “Billy Boy,” a tune dedicated to the regiment's commanding officer, had become one of the band's favorite numbers. See the New York Age, 08 30, 1917.Google Scholar

18. Johnson's story, in his own words, is quoted in Sweeney, , History, pp 146–47.Google Scholar So famous had he become, especially among black Americans, that an imposter very nearly got away with a fortune in gifts before the real Johnson returned from France. Aside from the dead enemy who were actually found, it is impossible to be certain about the human damage wrought by Privates Johnson and Roberts. It was considerable, surely, for over two dozen Germans were driven off. Colonel Hayward's description of the incident can be found in a letter written to Johnson's wife and reprinted in Scott's Official History, pp. 256–59.Google Scholar

19. Cobb visited the 369th in April of 1918 shortly after the regiment was ordered to the front. His account of that visit was published under the title “Young Black Joe,” in the Saturday Evening Post, 08 24, 1918, pp. 7–8, 77–78.Google Scholar Excerpts from this article also appear in Sweeney, , History, p. 148.Google Scholar A recently discovered manuscript written by Sissle, Noble (“Memoirs of Lieutenant ‘Jim’ Europe,” dated 10, 1942Google Scholar, NAACP Records 1940–55, Group II, J Box 56, General Miscellany, Library of Congress) describes the cold reception that Cobb received from the men, his reputation for ridiculing African-Americans being well known to them (see pp. 146–47).

20. See the New York Herald, 02 18, 1919.Google Scholar

21. World, 02 18, 1919Google Scholar, and reprinted in Sweeney, , History, p. 273.Google Scholar The New York Times report differs slightly, describing the shouts as “‘Oh, you Henry Johnson,’ and ‘Oh, you Black Death,’” followed by mock condolences for the Kaiser.

22. The Chicago Defender, 02 22, 1919Google Scholar, described Europe and his “world famous band” as the center of attraction of the parade. For the opinion of the soldiers, see, for example, the interviews with Captain Fish and the other veterans of the 369th in Men of Bronze. “I concur with Irvin S. Cobb,” Hayward wrote in a letter to Sissle, Noble after the war (dated 01 27, 1920)Google Scholar, “who said in the Saturday Evening Post, that this was the best band in the American Army in which he but voiced the opinion of all competent judges.” See “Memoirs of Lieutenant ‘Jim” Europe,” p. 33.Google Scholar

23. New York Times, 05 12, 1919.Google Scholar

24. The English music historian, Jeffrey P. Green, for example, is unequivocal in giving Europe the credit. See his Edmund Thorton Jenkins: The Life and Times of an American Black Composer, 1894–1926 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1982), p. 60.Google Scholar Europe's place as a jazz pioneer, however, does depend upon giving the term “jazz” a somewhat more flexible definition than is usual today. For a discussion of his career and its relationship to the new music, see Badger, Reid, “James Reese Europe and the Prehistory of Jazz,” American Music 7 (Spring 1989): 48–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

25. Philadelphia Tribune, 02 22, 1919Google Scholar, and the New York Times, 02 18, 1919Google Scholar, carried the same description.

26. World, 02 18, 1919Google Scholar, reprinted in Sweeney, , History, p. 271.Google Scholar

27. Quoted in Katz, , “The 369th Swings Up Fifth Avenue,” p. 410.Google Scholar Several of the drums played by the band were gifts of the French government and one was a trophy captured from the Germans.

28. World, 02 18, 1919Google Scholar, reprinted in Sweeney, , History, p. 271.Google Scholar

29. Letter from Hayward, William H. to Sissle, Noble, 01 27, 1920Google Scholar, in Sissle, , “Memoirs,” p. 33.Google Scholar Having come to New York from Washington, D.C. in 1903, Europe had established an enviable reputation as one of the major musical figures in the city before the war. As music director for the nationally famous dance team of Vernon and Irene Castle, he was probably the best known black band leader in the land. For a survey of his career, see Badger, Reid, “The Conquests of Europe: The Remarkable Career of James Reese Europe,” Alabama Heritage 1 (Summer 1986): 34–49.Google Scholar

30. Three of the original black officers had been transferred to the Eighth Illinois Regiment, and one, Captain Napoleon Marshall, had been seriously wounded and returned to the United States separately. The lack of black officers was the only sad aspect of the day, said the Chicago Defender of 02 22, 1919Google Scholar: “Had they been officers of our own Race, Harlem's cup of joy would have been filled.”

31. World, 02 18, 1919Google Scholar, reprinted in Sweeney, , History, p. 268.Google Scholar

32. Chicago Defender, 02 22, 1919Google Scholar, and the World, 02 18, 1919Google Scholar, reprinted in Sweeney, , History, p. 272.Google Scholar

33. World, 02 18, 1919Google Scholar, reprinted in Sweeney, , History, p. 272Google Scholar, and the New York Times, 02 18, 1919.Google Scholar “That's one of the biggest men in New York,” commented a soldier as they marched past the Frick residence: “I used to shine his shoes. Now he's almost falling out of a window to wave to me.” Quoted in the New York Tribune, 02 18, 1919.Google Scholar

34. See the New York Herald, 02 18, 1919.Google Scholar

35. Both Anderson, Jervis in This Was Harlem: 1900–1950 (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1981)Google Scholar and Lewis, David Levering in When Harlem Was in Vogue (New York: Knopf, 1981)Google Scholar see the recruitment and service of the 15th Regiment as significant in the coming of age of the Harlem community. “Many Harlemites,” Anderson writes (p. 101), “could not have been prouder that their community had been chosen as the base for the first black military unit ever recognized in New York State; indeed, they thought of it as Harlem's own regiment, and saw it as a sign of the district's growing importance and prestige as a black community.”

36. New York Age, 02 22, 1919.Google ScholarSissle, Noble (“Memoirs,” p. 195)Google Scholar remembered the tune as “Whose Been There While I've Been Gone.” In either case, it doesn't require much imagination to picture the effect upon the Harlem crowd.

37. Johnson, James Weldon, “Views and Reviews,” New York Age, 02 22, 1919, p. 4.Google Scholar

38. The article was reprinted in full in the Baltimore Afro-American, 03 21, 1919, p. 4.Google Scholar

39. The worst of the riots began with an incident on July 27 at a beach on Chicago's lake front. Thirteen days later, when it was finally over, thousands had had their homes destroyed, hundreds had been injured, and thirty-eight (twenty three blacks) were dead. See, for example, Kennedy, David M., Over Here: The First World War and American Society (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980), pp. 279–84.Google Scholar

40. Wilcom-Elleger, F., “Press Comments on the Old Fifteenth,” New York Age, 03 22, 1919, p. 4.Google Scholar

41. Little, , From Harlem to the Rhine, p. 361Google Scholar, and quoted in Anderson, , This Was Harlem: 1900–1950, p. 118.Google Scholar

42. Quoted in the New York Herald, 02 18, 1919.Google Scholar The Herald also printed a long poem dedicated to “The Black Regiment” by George Henry Baker which suggested that the black troops understood better than the white what the Great War had been about:

“Freedom!” their battle-cry,–

“Freedom! or leave to die!”

Ah! and they meant the word,

Not as with us 'tis heard,

Not a mere party-shout…,

43. See the interview with Melville Miller in the documentary, Men of Bronze. The spell of the day seemed even to affect the police force, who perhaps had not always deserved the Times' description of them as “good-natured” and “models of kindness” with regard to their treatment of the city's black residents. For “New York's Finest,” as with all New York, proclaimed the Herald, there was “no color line.” The next day, according to the papers, it snowed.