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Correcting Past Prejudices: Honoring Our Veterans
Two veterans have been denied the Medal of Honor for nearly a century for their life-saving actions on account of their race and religion. Both Pvt. Henry Johnson and Sgt. William Shemin committed tremendous acts of bravery while serving in World War I, but because Johnson was African American and Shemin was Jewish, they did not receive the military’s highest honor. On June 2, 2015, Johnson and Shemin received their Medals of Honor, nearly 97 years after their courageous acts.
These recent Medal of Honor presentations come amid an effort by the Obama Administration to correct past injustice in the military. A provision of the 2002 defense authorization bill prompted the Pentagon to look for potential cases of discrimination in Medal of Honor decisions, and now several of these injustices are finally being righted. Last March, President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor to 19 Hispanic, Jewish, and African-American veterans who were overlooked because of their racial and ethnic backgrounds.
In May 1918 near Sainte Menehould, France, Johnson and another member of his regiment fought off at least 12 German soldiers after a surprise attack. While a fellow soldier suffered serious injuries, Johnson moved forward to engage the attacking Germans in hand-to-hand combat forcing them to retreat. Although he suffered severe wounds, Johnson managed to the protect his companion from capture with only his hands and a knife.
A few months later in August 1918, Shemin repeatedly ran across a battlefield to save injured members of his platoon. He risked his life, exposing himself to machine gun and rifle fire. In the process, Shemin was hit by shrapnel and had a bullet lodged in his left ear after it pierced his helmet. He also took leadership of his platoon temporarily after all senior officers died on the battlefield.
Shemin was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his service, but was never given an explanation for why his first Medal of Honor request was denied. Shemin died in 1973 without receiving the Medal of Honor, but earlier this month his daughter, Elsie Shemin-Roth, received the award on his behalf.
Johnson served with the “Harlem Hellfighters,” an all-black regiment put under French command because African-American soldiers could not serve in the same combat units as white Americans. His race was likely the reason he did not receive the Medal of Honor following the war. Johnson died in 1929 and is currently buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Command Sgt. Major Louis Wilson, a commander in the New York National Guard, accepted the award from President Obama on his behalf.
President Teddy Roosevelt wrote that Johnson was one of the “bravest American soldiers in the war,” and in the 1950s Langston Hughes began pushing for him to receive the Medal of Honor. After his service, Johnson was one of the first Americans to receive the Croix de Guerre avec Palme, France’s highest award for valor. He also earned the Wound Chevron–an award that recognized soldiers who were wounded in combat–the Purple Heart from President Bill Clinton, and the Distinguished Service Cross in 2003.
Senator Chuck Schumerwas one of Johnson’s strongest advocates. Without the determination of Schumer and his staff, Johnson may never have received the Medal of Honor so many years after the fact. The senator’s office managed to find a letter written by Gen. John J. Pershing commending Johnson’s bravery, including excerpts from his peers. Johnson’s Medal of Honor application was resubmitted and the new evidence and eventually approved. After the announcement that Johnson would receive the Medal of Honor, Schumer told The New York Times,
The great thing about America is that we undo our injustices more than any other country… his act and heroism was amazing.
In 2011 Senators Wyden and Merkley wrote a letter to Leon Panetta, the Defense Secretary at the time, stating,
These awards do not properly recognize Private Johnson’s heroism and with new evidence it is now possible for the nation to give Private Johnson the recognition he deserves, the Medal of Honor.
These senators, joined with several other members of Congress, called for an exception to the Medal of Honor rule, which states that heroic actions must have taken place within the last five years to be considered.
Shemin-Roth worked for years to get her father’s heroism properly documented. In an interview last year, she claimed that her father was not given the Medal of Honor because he was Jewish. Senator Claire McCaskill and several Jewish organizations took up his cause and pushed to award the Medal of Honor to Shemin.
After the award ceremony, McCaskill said,
I couldn’t be prouder that we were able to correct these past injustices, and that William Shemin and other Jewish heroes will get the recognition they deserve, and the national gratitude they earned.
While these recent awards show progress in correcting past wrongdoing, we must continue to ensure that all veterans are properly commended for their service. It is a shame that it took our nation almost a century to overlook racial and religious prejudice in the cases of Private Johnson and Sergeant Shemin. If we prevented these injustices in the first place, we would never have to undo them.
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