Harlem Hell Fighters return to New York,

The nine African American soldiers were just home from the war. It was Feb. 12, 1919, and most were bundled in heavy coats as they posed for the photographer on the deck of the USS Stockholm. The New York City-based unit (the 369th Infantry Regiment) was famous for its prowess in battle and the indignities it suffered at the hands of many white officers. Discrimination was so bad that the regiment was shunted off to fight with the French army and equipped with French helmets and French rifles, historians say. It was the Germans who gave them the moniker, Hell Fighters. The French government awarded the regiment the Croix de Guerre, and bestowed 171 individual medals for valor