"Only We Can Tell the Tale...": the Harlem Renaissance Is Launched
It seems that nobody can agree on the exact moment when the Harlem Renaissance began. Maybe that's because quite a few important things were happening at around the same time. Some historians claim that the return of the 369th Infantry Regiment to Harlem at the end of World War I (1914–18) marked the beginning of the new era. On February 17, 1919, this military unit of more than one thousand black soldiers and eighteen white officers (at that time African Americans were not allowed to command troops) marched up New York City's Fifth Avenue to the jazzy beat of black bandleader James Reese Europe's world-renowned military band. Among the approximately thirty thousand blacks who had fought on the front lines in France (around four hundred thousand had joined the armed forces in other capacities), the men of the 369th served bravely in the 16th and 161st divisions of the French Army. The admiring French had nicknamed them the Hellfighters, and they had been the only American unit awarded France's high military honor, the Croix de Guerre medal (name means "war cross").
With the famous black dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (1878–1949) serving as drum major, and surrounded on allsides by cheering bystanders, the unit marched toward "home." When they reached Harlem, the band started playing "Here Comes My Daddy," and their ranks broke up as the delirious crowd surrounded their black heroes.
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