During the time period when Health Card by Frank Yerby was written, segregation and racism was a major part of the south. Not too many people, especially blacks, spoke up against these issues during this time because they were terribly scared of the consequences. Before integration came along, white people pretty much did or said anything they wanted to blacks. But if you spoke up for yourself or other blacks, you were either considered a hero by other blacks or a plain out fool. Some blacks that stood up for themselves were considered crazy because they knew that they could be tortured or even killed. In my book, being crazy is a thin line between being brave and for that reason alone I find Private Johnny Green a brave man.
Throughout the story Johnny Green displayed his bravery in several different ways. In the beginning of the story Johnny knew his wife was coming to see him and he had no place for her to stay that would be considered nice. So he took his chances of rejection by asking the reverend and his wife could he rent out one of their rooms in their home for his respectable new wife to stay in for a week. It took Johnny Green a lot of courage to ask and convince some complete strangers to let him and his wife to stay at their godly home.
After Johnny left the reverend's house, he ran into a dilemma in which the colonel declared the town out of bounds for all Negro soldiers for a month. But Johnny couldn't let that happen to him because his wife was coming to see him and he had nothing to do with the scuffle the M.P.s had with the other black soldiers. Johnny became so heated that he was willing to risk getting shot to plead his case with the colonel. Luckily for Johnny, a sergeant came and allowed him to see the colonel. Even though Little Willie thought Johnny Green was crazy, after the brief meeting with colonel, Johnny was granted permission to go to town to see his wife.