Let's Remember Some Civil Unrest! 1917 Houston Riots

WYTS: Houston Texas. Original post here.

The Greater Houston area is prone to explosions. Texas City likes to turn ships full of ammonium nitrate or towers full of oil raffinate into massive fireballs about once every fifty years. In today's story, the explosion is more a metaphor for racial tensions. This is the 1917 Houston Riots.

Three years into the Great War, faced with an unwinnable situation, Germany decided to gamble with Unrestricted Submarine Warfare and bring the United States into the party. This was extremely stupid, so stupid that Germany would repeat this blunder all over again in the 1940s, having learned nothing. In 1917, the US was the richest nation in the world, and had been propping up the Allied Powers for years with loans and shipping supplies. On April 2nd, President Wilson declared war, the first time the American military would sail to Europe to fight a major global power. Its army was untested for modern war, but sheer numbers alone would make a major difference.

Houston, being a major port city, was intimately involved with all of this. WWI was incredibly disruptive to the entirety of American society. It would require the mobilization of the entire nation, and the nation has its own problems, which trench warfare was not going to make disappear. Where is Houston again? Oh yeah, Deep Deep South: you can see where this going.

In 1917, Houston was a booming city (sometimes literally) and the oil industry was only just getting started. It had been untouched by the Union Navy in the Civil War and had not too much difficulty enforcing segregation after Reconstruction. The city had been undergoing a major engineering project to widen and deepen its shipping channel, making it a more and more strategically important place. Since Houston was the biggest port in Texas, it was going to be home to a lot of newcomers about to go off to Europe to discover how much fun you could have with the Kaiser's army in Belleau Wood.

Many of those soldiers were Black, despite the best efforts of Southern politicians to keep them out of the war. They knew Black enlisted men would disrupt this order. Near Houston, a new training base called Camp Logan was under construction in the spot where Memorial Park sits today. The 3rd battalion of the all-African American 24th Infantry Regiment, 634 men in total, were there on guard duty. Important note: even the military was segregated in this era as they made the world safe for democracy.

This Infantry Regiment had quite a history already. The 24th started off as Buffalo Soldiers in the still-Wild West. They fought at the Battle of San Juan Hill in 1898 and saved a politician on an ego-trip, Teddy Roosevelt from getting himself killed by Spanish defenders. Roosevelt called them "shirkers" after the fact as he wanted all the glory for himself. They would go on to fight in America's first or second "Vietnam", the war against Filipino guerillas, with four tours served between 1899 and 1911. Most recently, they had been part of the Pancho Villa Expedition. The ungrateful citizens of Houston were uninterested or unimpressed with their service record.

The 3rd battalion of the 24th sat on a gray line in the racial caste system, and lines are usually where violence is at its worst. They were Black in Houston, so in the eyes of Texas culture and law, inferior. However, they were soldiers in uniform, so inherently demanded respect. Arriving in July of 1917, these soldiers had to deal with all kinds of social problems: where do you sit on the streetcar? Can the Houston police still treat you as a child? Do you still ignore random slurs that are to be expected when you're just walking around? Their experienced commanding officer, Colonel William Newman, had already seen racial violence incidents. One of his men had been murdered by a Texas Ranger in April 1916. Unfortunately, Newman was replaced just two days before the riot by Major Kneeland S. Snow. A fresh new commander probably did not help the feeling of distrust and confusion. (Both of these officers were white, of course.)

On August 23th, around noon, two Houston PD officers, Rufus Daniels and Lee Sparks, were in the Black San Felipe neighborhood. They disrupted a dice game, and while chasing some suspected criminals, broke into the home of a woman, Sara Travelers. She had done nothing wrong, nobody was in her house, but still, the cops dragged her out onto the street in her sheer sleeping clothing, without shoes to humiliate her. One of the 24th Regiment soldiers nearby, Private Alonzo Edwards, got involved with the arrest, and the police beat him via a pistol whipping. A Corporal, Charles Benjamin, considered a goodie two-shoes model soldier, now got involved. You can see how this just keeps getting worse, these two cops pick the wrong option at every turn. Benjamin is also beaten, and as he flees, he is shot at three times (I'm unclear if he was hit). Rumors fly back at the base that Benjamin has been murdered by the police, when in fact, he's actually just been arrested. Everybody becomes panicked that a white mob might march upon Camp Logan, and they want to fight back first.

Major Kneeland, who again, has been on the job for two days, barely has time to figure out what is going on. He does not know whether Corporal Benjamin is alive or dead, or what is happening with his unit, before events get out of control. The Major tried to collect his soldiers' guns and ammo, but when wild rumors circulate, about 100 or 150 of them rush the weapons tent. Now armed, they march towards the city. Their unofficial leader became Sergeant Vida Henry, a Black non-com officer.

The 3rd Battalion now began a 2.5 mile fighting march to the San Felipe area. Along the way, they encountered a confused and unorganized Houston PD response. The cops expected just a few angry unarmed men, not a firing line of well-armed veterans, and they took casualties. One of those killed was patrolman Rufus Daniels, who had started all of this by breaking into Ms. Travelers' house in the first place. A bit of justice. After three cops were killed, the 3rd also killed a National Guardsmen, believing him to be of the HPD. Several civilians were also hit and died, including a white child.

Once they reached San Felipe, it seems the Battalion realized they had gone way too far and their situation was hopeless. Morale plummeted as it hit them they were now basically at war with the entire world, and they were not going to win this one. Sergeant Henry told the men he was leaving and would shoot himself. His body was found the next day. Some sources say it was self-inflicted gunshot wound, other reports make it sound like Henry was beaten to death. Many soldiers went back to base. Others just deserted and hid wherever they could around San Felipe. On the 24th, Houston was under martial law, and the police did a thorough search house by house to find every one of the rebellious 3rd Battalion members. The Army gathered the whole group and sent them by train out to New Mexico. Many would return to Texas to face one of the largest court martial trials in American history.

After the dust cleared, the death toll was 17 civilians, police or otherwise, and the 3rd Battalion took five dead, mostly by friendly fire.

In San Antonio, during the next few months, there were three separate trials for 118 men charged with mutiny and rioting. 110 were convicted. 19 of the soldiers were hanged. On December 11th, 13 soldiers were hanged at once. War justice is brutal justice. President Wilson commuted another ten death sentences on August 31st, 1918 to merely life in prison. Patrolman Lee Sparks, the other cop that started everything, was acquitted of all wrong-doing.

Quickly, the Houston Riot became an embarrassing mark on the US military’s history, even for the ultra-conservative 1920s. Calvin Coolidge made several soldiers eligible for parole. FDR released the last ones in the late-30s. One of the released soldiers, Roy Tyler, would be a professional baseball player in the Negro Leagues in the 20s, but only for a little while. Tyler ended up serving time in Leavenworth a few years after gaining his freedom, ending his career. On November 13th, 2023, a century late, the Army posthumously overturned all the convictions.

The 24th Infantry did not go to France. They would continue as a segregated unit into the Korean War, where they distinguished themselves with hard front line fighting until 1951. It ceased to exist once the US military was finally 100% integrated, the last all-Black unit was dissolved in 1954. A new Regiment by this number was created in 1994.

More importantly for Black soldiers immediately after WWI, 1919 would see a host of troubles in the Red Summer, as Black veterans had their second-class citizen status beaten back into them. The 10th Cavalry, who had also fought in Cuba with the 24th Regiment, were nearly massacred in Bisbee,Arizona, if you remember that story from many episodes ago. Wikipedia calls this era "the nadir of race relations in the US". White supremacy was never more certain of itself and its power to inflict violence with impunity.

Now in 2026, the current civilian leadership is doing their best to erase all history of Black service in US military history. They’re threatening to rename the USS Doris Miller, a war hero, after Donald Trump, who is… as far as I know, not one. These policies are on their face pro-segregationist. There is an active effort to turn the clock back to this awful era.