1917-01-14 On this date in 1917 Black soldiers in Houston, TX, retaliated against white racism. The hostile racial climate in Houston after Reconstruction was a constant reminder to Blacks of their second-class citizenship. When a battalion of the 24th Infantry arrived there, the soldiers resented the racial epithets of whites working on a nearby National Guard camp, the segregation on local streetcar lines, and the violence the police used against them. Many of the older, more steady, noncommissioned black officers had been reassigned elsewhere as the country prepared for World War I. Among the battalion’s white officers, there was little understanding or empathy between the two groups. When two black soldiers protested the beating of a Black woman, they were pistol-whipped and arrested for interfering. Tensions rose and attempts to get the arrested soldiers away from police and restrict the unit to the camp were unsuccessful. Roughly 100 armed soldiers, including some officers, headed into town to retaliate against any policeman they found. Over the next two hours the soldiers killed a number of individuals who looked like the police. They attacked the police station where the two arrested soldiers were held; four other mutineers died. Following the rampage, they returned to the camp. Initially, the troops were moved to Columbus, NM. At the first Court Martial held in December, 54 of the 60 charged were found guilty of mutiny and premeditated murder and 13 of them were sentenced to be hanged. There was no appeal process and the records of the convictions reached the judge advocate general’s office weeks after the hangings were carried out. The outraged African American community protested vehemently about the injustice of the proceedings. Two more court-martials occurred against others in the battalion for leaving their guard post to participate in the mob action. Ten were sentenced to prison and five were ordered executed for desertion and murder. In March 1918, 40 more soldiers were tried. In the end only six soldiers from these two court actions were hanged. The NAACP intervened, the Army slowly responded, reducing some sentences and granting releases to others. It was not until 1938 that the last Houston soldier was released from prison. (ADDED DETAILS) Black soldiers of the 3rd Battalion of the 24th Infantry, stationed at Camp Logan, had grown increasingly tired of racial discrimination and abuse from Houstons white residents and from the police in particular. On the night of August 23, 1917, the soldiers retaliated by marching on the city and killing sixteen white civilians and law enforcement personnel. Four black soldiers died as well. The Houston rebellion shocked the nation and encouraged white southern politicians to oppose the future training of black soldiers in the South. Three military court-martial proceedings convicted 110 soldiers. Sixty-three received life sentences and thirteen were hung without due process. The army buried their bodies in unmarked graves. Despite the bloodshed at Houston, the black press and civil rights organizations like the NAACP insisted that African Americans should receive the opportunity to serve as soldiers and fight in the war. Joel Spingarn, a former chairman of the NAACP, worked to establish an officers training camp for black candidates. All of you cannot be leaders, he stated, but those of you who have the capacity for leadership must be given an opportunity to test and display it. The black press vigorously debated the merits of a Jim Crow camp. W. E. B. Du Bois, the noted scholar, editor of the NAACPs journal The Crisis, and a close friend of Spingarn, supported the camp as a crucible of talented tenth black leadership, manhood, and patriotism. Black college students, particularly those at historically black institutions, were the driving force behind the camp. Howard University established the Central Committee of Negro College Men and recruited potential candidates from college campuses and black communities throughout the country. The camp opened on June 18, 1917, in Des Moines, Iowa, with 1,250 aspiring black officer candidates. At the close of the camp on October 17, 1917, 639 men received commissions, a historical first. The military created two combat divisions for African Americans. One, the 92nd Division, was composed of draftees and officers. The second, the 93rd Division, was made up of mostly National Guard units from New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, and Massachusetts. The army, however, assigned the vast majority of soldiers to service units, reflecting a belief that black men were more suited for manual labor than combat duty. Black soldiers were stationed and trained throughout the country, although most facilities were located in the South. They had to endure racial segregation and often received substandard clothing, shelter, and social services. At the same time, the army presented many black servicemen, particularly those from the rural South, with opportunities unavailable to them as civilians, such as remedial education and basic health care. Military service was also a broadening experience that introduced black men to different people and different parts of the country. Reference: The Encyclopedia of African-American Heritage by Susan Altman Copyright 1997, Facts on File, Inc. New York ISBN 0-8160-3289-0
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 14:24:32 +0000
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