William Johnson was born on February 11, 1897, in rural Hempstead County, Arkansas --likely in or near Bodcaw Township, where many Black families worked as tenant farmers or sharecroppers in the post-Reconstruction South . By the time the United States entered World War I in April 1917, William was just 20 years and 2 months old. The Selective Service Act of May 1917 initially targeted men aged 21 to 31 for the draft, but as the war effort intensified and manpower needs grew,