A Deadly Riot, and Then 3 Trials, 110 Convictions and 19 Executions
[T]he all-Black 24th Infantry Regiment…was assigned to guard the construction of a training camp for white soldiers in Houston. The mostly white population greeted them with racial epithets and physical violence. The tension erupted in a deadly riot on Aug. 23, 1917, said John A. Haymond, a military historian who led the tour. The uprising lasted more than two hours and claimed 19 lives — a mix of 15 white police officers, soldiers and civilians and four Black soldiers, according to historical records.
Pvt. Thomas Hawkins, wrote a final letter to his parents on Dec. 11, 1917, hours before his death: “I’m sentenced to be hanged for the trouble that happened in Houston. Although I am not guilty of the crime that I’m accused of Mother, it’s God’s will that I go now and in this way.”
In 1937, the soldiers’ bodies were moved from unmarked graves to the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery grounds…[T]he men had previously been buried, not with their dog tags, but each with an empty soda bottle containing a piece of paper with his name written on it.
www.nytimes.com/2022/02/26/us/houston-riot-black-soldiers.html
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