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Houston riot of 1917
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Houston riot of 1917
A mutiny and riot by 156 soldiers from the all-black 24th Infantry Regiment of the United States Army took place on August 23, 1917, in Houston, Texas. The incident occurred within a climate of overt racist hostility from members of the all-white Houston Police Department (HPD) against members of the local black community and black soldiers stationed at Camp Logan. Following an incident where police officers arrested and assaulted black soldiers, including beating a soldier near death for intervening on a black woman being beat by an officer. They refused to release him or an update of his condition leading to soldiers marching to Houston. There they opened fire and killed eleven civilians and five policemen. Five soldiers also died, (four to friendly fire and one to suicide). In accordance with the military laws of the time, 118 soldiers were tried in three courts-martial. This was the largest murder trial in US history. A total of 110 were convicted, of whom 19 were executed and 63 were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Gregg Andrews, author of Thyra J. Edwards: Black Activist in the Global Freedom Struggle, wrote in 2011 that the riot "shook race relations in the city and created conditions that helped to spark a statewide surge of wartime racial activism".
In November 2023, the Army set aside all 110 convictions. It acknowledged the servicemen had not received fair trials in the racist climate of the time period. The Army gave all the men honorable discharges.
On April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany, marking its official entry into World War I. The War Department initiated the construction of temporary facilities nationwide to train, house, and support troops for mobilization and deployment to Europe. Camp Logan, located west of Houston city limits, was among the newly constructed cantonments.
On July 27, 1917, soldiers from Companies I, K, L, and M of the 3rd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment (the 3/24th) arrived in Houston to serve as a guard detail during the construction of Camp Logan. The 3/24th was a racially segregated unit of Black American soldiers, whose regimental lineage traced back to the "Buffalo Soldiers". Members of the 3/24th sent to Houston included 654 Black enlisted soldiers and eight White commissioned officers. Prior to its arrival in Houston, the 3/24th had completed multiple tours to the Philippines during the Philippine–American War and was part of the Punitive Expedition in 1916-1917 at the Mexico–United States border during the Mexican Revolution.
During its time in Houston, the 3/24th was primarily led by Commanding Officer Colonel William Newman, who had been with the unit since 1915. Upon receiving a promotion, Colonel Newman relinquished command on August 21, 1917, to Major Kneeland S. Snow.
Almost from their arrival, the presence of black soldiers in strictly-segregated Houston raised tensions. Jim Crow laws were in place, and the soldiers were forced to contend with segregated accommodations, including drinking facilities at the construction site, and repeated racist taunts. Prior to the riot, the soldiers were involved in a number of "clashes" with members of the all-white Houston Police Department (HPD). In several of these incidents, the police assaulted the soldiers, leaving them with lasting injuries.
Around noon of August 23, 1917, Lee Sparks and Rufus Daniels, two HPD officers, disrupted a gathering on a street corner in Houston's predominantly black San Felipe district by firing warning shots. This had been a black community since after the Civil War. Sparks, pursuing those who fled the gunshots, burst into the home of a local woman named Sara Travers. He did not find anyone he was chasing. Refusing to believe Travers's protestations that she had no knowledge of their whereabouts, Sparks dragged her outside of her house, not even allowing her to put on shoes, and arrested her.
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Houston riot of 1917
A mutiny and riot by 156 soldiers from the all-black 24th Infantry Regiment of the United States Army took place on August 23, 1917, in Houston, Texas. The incident occurred within a climate of overt racist hostility from members of the all-white Houston Police Department (HPD) against members of the local black community and black soldiers stationed at Camp Logan. Following an incident where police officers arrested and assaulted black soldiers, including beating a soldier near death for intervening on a black woman being beat by an officer. They refused to release him or an update of his condition leading to soldiers marching to Houston. There they opened fire and killed eleven civilians and five policemen. Five soldiers also died, (four to friendly fire and one to suicide). In accordance with the military laws of the time, 118 soldiers were tried in three courts-martial. This was the largest murder trial in US history. A total of 110 were convicted, of whom 19 were executed and 63 were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Gregg Andrews, author of Thyra J. Edwards: Black Activist in the Global Freedom Struggle, wrote in 2011 that the riot "shook race relations in the city and created conditions that helped to spark a statewide surge of wartime racial activism".
In November 2023, the Army set aside all 110 convictions. It acknowledged the servicemen had not received fair trials in the racist climate of the time period. The Army gave all the men honorable discharges.
On April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany, marking its official entry into World War I. The War Department initiated the construction of temporary facilities nationwide to train, house, and support troops for mobilization and deployment to Europe. Camp Logan, located west of Houston city limits, was among the newly constructed cantonments.
On July 27, 1917, soldiers from Companies I, K, L, and M of the 3rd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment (the 3/24th) arrived in Houston to serve as a guard detail during the construction of Camp Logan. The 3/24th was a racially segregated unit of Black American soldiers, whose regimental lineage traced back to the "Buffalo Soldiers". Members of the 3/24th sent to Houston included 654 Black enlisted soldiers and eight White commissioned officers. Prior to its arrival in Houston, the 3/24th had completed multiple tours to the Philippines during the Philippine–American War and was part of the Punitive Expedition in 1916-1917 at the Mexico–United States border during the Mexican Revolution.
During its time in Houston, the 3/24th was primarily led by Commanding Officer Colonel William Newman, who had been with the unit since 1915. Upon receiving a promotion, Colonel Newman relinquished command on August 21, 1917, to Major Kneeland S. Snow.
Almost from their arrival, the presence of black soldiers in strictly-segregated Houston raised tensions. Jim Crow laws were in place, and the soldiers were forced to contend with segregated accommodations, including drinking facilities at the construction site, and repeated racist taunts. Prior to the riot, the soldiers were involved in a number of "clashes" with members of the all-white Houston Police Department (HPD). In several of these incidents, the police assaulted the soldiers, leaving them with lasting injuries.
Around noon of August 23, 1917, Lee Sparks and Rufus Daniels, two HPD officers, disrupted a gathering on a street corner in Houston's predominantly black San Felipe district by firing warning shots. This had been a black community since after the Civil War. Sparks, pursuing those who fled the gunshots, burst into the home of a local woman named Sara Travers. He did not find anyone he was chasing. Refusing to believe Travers's protestations that she had no knowledge of their whereabouts, Sparks dragged her outside of her house, not even allowing her to put on shoes, and arrested her.
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