Fort Polk

Louisiana’s Fort Polk later this month will be renamed Fort Johnson in honor of Sgt.

Fort Polk in Louisiana will be the next installation to change its name June 13 to Fort Johnson, in honor of Sgt.

Fort Polk in west-central Louisiana was established in 1941, its name recommended by the Army War College’s Historical Section.

By proposing that Fort Polk in Louisiana take Johnson’s name, the commission highlights the extremes to which the Jim Crow-era United States sometimes went to deny even the possibility of Black American heroism.

Fort Polk in Louisiana would be called Fort Johnson in honor of William Henry Johnson of the “Harlem Hellfighters.”