S2 Episode 9 Black History Month

Black History Month 2022 is here and we are celebrating our Blackness! During this episode of Let's Chat, Leah and Deveter discuss the ways in which they celebrate Black History Month. Leah introduced her mom to The Harlem Hellfighters!
Take a listen you may learn something too!
Leah's book suggestion for this week is Blended by Sharon M. Draper
By Nick Garber
via the msn.com news web site
HARLEM, NY — The Harlem Hellfighters, a majority-Black World War I regiment whose soldiers won plaudits for their bravery, have come a step closer to getting long-delayed recognition from the federal government.

The U.S. Senate on Monday passed the Harlem Hellfighters Congressional Gold Medal Act, a bill introduced by New York lawmakers that would award the medal to the Hellfighters. Having already passed the House in June, it now only needs President Joe Biden's signature to become official.

Descendants of the soldiers had gathered this spring at Harlems 369th Regiment Armory — constructed in the Hellfighters' honor — as U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi announced he was introducing a bill to honor the group.

"It is never too late to do the right thing," said Suozzi, a Long Island congressman who became interested in the Hellfighters after he was approached by neighbors whose ancestor, Sgt. Leander Willett, had been injured in France while serving with the regiment.

The Hellfighters, a segregated regiment composed mostly of Black and Puerto Rican troops, were deployed to France in 1917. They earned their nickname from their German foes, who were impressed by their enemies' bravery on the battlefield.

In 1918, the Hellfighters were assigned to serve with the French Army, rather than with their white countrymen who refused to serve with Black soldiers — a "decades-old injustice" that the Gold Medal would help correct, Suozzi said in April.