A WORLD WAR II STORY
Johnnie Stevens and the 761st Tank Battalion
Johnnie Stevens served with the 761st Tank Battalion, the Black Panthers, during World War II. His remarkable journey back to his unit became the inspiration for “Buddy… Let’s Ride.” Hitching rides, he stopped a supply truck. “Seven-Sixty-First,” the driver said. Johnnie got aboard. “Buddy… let’s ride.”
761ST TANK BATTALION — THE BLACK PANTHERS
JOHNNIE STEVENS JR.
Johnnie Stevens Jr. served with the 761st Tank Battalion, the first Black tank battalion to see combat in World War II. After pneumonia separated him from his unit in France, he left the hospital determined to return. He found a supply truck. When he asked for the 761st, the driver said: “Buddy… let’s ride.”
Johnnie’s Journey Back
THE STORY BEHIND “BUDDY… LET’S RIDE”
Johnnie Stevens served with the 761st Tank Battalion, the Black Panthers, during World War II. The 761st was an African American tank battalion that fought its way across Europe during some of the hardest fighting of the war.
While serving in Europe, Johnnie became seriously ill with pneumonia and was sent to a hospital away from his unit. But Johnnie wanted to get back to the men he had been fighting beside. He left the hospital and set out to find the 761st.
He began making his way back, hitching rides whenever he could. Somewhere along that journey, Johnnie stopped a supply truck and asked where it was headed.
“Seven-Sixty-First,” the driver told him.
Johnnie had found his ride back.
“Buddy… let’s ride.”
He eventually rejoined the 761st and continued serving with his unit through the war.
But Johnnie’s story did not end when the fighting stopped. After returning home, he encountered another reality faced by Black veterans. In Georgia, while still wearing the uniform of the country he had fought for, Johnnie was confronted with the segregation and discrimination that remained at home.
His life would later take him to Seattle and eventually New Jersey. Decades after the war, his memories became part of the history preserved through oral storytelling—the kind of history that can disappear when the people who lived it are no longer here to tell us themselves.
Johnnie’s story inspired “Buddy… Let’s Ride,” a song created to carry his memories forward in another form.
Because history isn't only what happened.
It's what happened to someone.
FROM FRANCE TO HOME
THE WAR ENDED. THE FIGHT DIDN’T.
Johnnie rejoined the 761st and finished the war with the Black Panthers. But coming home brought another battle. On a bus in Georgia, white soldiers challenged him until they saw the medals on his uniform. He had fought for his country overseas, yet still faced racism at home.
A LEGACY BEYOND THE WAR
THE STORY LIVED ON
Johnnie built a life in New Jersey after the war. He became the first African American bus driver in Middlesex County, worked with youth programs in Carteret, and in 2006 received France’s Legion of Honor. His story carried the 761st far beyond the battlefield.