Houston Riots 1917

Introduction

The 1917 Houston Riots are also known as the Camp Logan Riots. It was the rebellion of a total of 156 African American Soldiers of the Third Battalion of the all black twenty-fourth U.S Infantry. The riot was for one night as a result of which four soldiers and sixteen civilians died. The soldiers who were involved in the riot were tried at three courts-martial. Nineteen of those soldiers were executed and life sentences were given to forty-one soldiers.

Discussion

In 1917, after the war on Germany declared by America, the department of the war ordered two military installations in Harris Country, Ellington Field and Camp Logan. The army ordered the all black Third Battalion of the twenty-fourth United States infantry for guarding the Camp Logan's construction site. They ordered them to travel with seven white officers in a train from the regimental encampment to Houston from New Mexico. During their time there, the black soldiers were badly treated by the other soldiers (Edgar, 35). Many of them endured the harassments but some openly resented the bad treatment. Nothing was done to ease the problems of the black soldiers. One day around noon, two police officers of Houston barged into an African American woman's home, supposedly to look for someone. They fired a warning shot outside her house. Inside, the officers physically assaulted the woman and dragged her outside partially clad. This was all done in front of her five infant children. The woman started screaming and demanding why she is being treated this way as a crowd formed around them. One of the African American soldiers of infantry step forward and inquired about their behavior, after which the American soldiers beat him up and arrested him, as well. Later it was reported that the soldier was arrested as he ...