John Haymond

Black Soldiers, White Laws (eBook, ePUB)

The Tragedy of the 24th Infantry in 1917 Houston

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

The first full and definitive narrative of one of the most shocking and largely unknown events of racial injustice in U.S. history: the execution of nineteen Black soldiers in Texas

On the sweltering, rainy night of August 23, 1917, one of the most consequential events affecting America's long legacy of racism and injustice began in Houston, Texas. Inflamed by a rumor that a white mob was arming to attack them, and after weeks of police harassment, more than 100 African American soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, took their weapons and marched into the largely Black San Felipe district of the city. Violent confrontations with police and civilians ensued and nineteen lives were lost.

The Army moved quickly to court-martial 118 soldiers on charges of mutiny and murder. Inadequately defended en masse by a single officer who was not a lawyer, and who had no experience in capital cases, in three trials undermined by perjured testimony and clear racial bias, and confronted by an all-white tribunal committed to a rapid judgment, 110 Black soldiers were found guilty. In the predawn darkness of December 11th, thirteen of them were hanged at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonioin secret, without any chance to appeal. News of the largest mass execution in the Army's history outraged the country and inspired preventive legislation, and yet six more Black soldiers were executed in early 1918 and the rest were sentenced to life in prison.

The Houston Incident, as it became known, has remained largely untold, a deep stain on the Army's record and pride. Award-winning historian and Army veteran John Haymond has spent six years researching the events surrounding the Incident and leading the efforts that ultimately led, in November 2023, to the largest act of retroactive clemency in the Army's history when the verdicts were overtuned and honorable discharges awarded to all the soldiers involved. His dramatic chronicle of what transpiredsituated amongst the rampant racism in Texas and the countryis a crucially important and harrowing reminder of our racially violent past, offering the promise that justice, even posthumously, can prevail.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Grove Atlantic
• Erscheinungstermin: 15. Juli 2025
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780802164766
• Artikelnr.: 72259146

Autorenporträt

JOHN HAYMOND is an award-winning historian who researches and writes on topics of conflict history, the history of military law, and social justice issues. He teaches history in Tacoma, Washington. In 2018, he served as the lead historian at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, on a military project to commemorate the 1917 Houston Mutiny courts-martial and executions. He is the coauthor and lead historian of the Houston Incident Clemency Petition sponsored by the NAACP, a 120-page historical and legal study that was submitted to the Secretary of the Army in 2020. He is also a veteran of twenty-one years in the US Army.