Buffalo Soldiers of the 24th Infantry Regiment Respond to Racial Violence at Camp Logan

On August 23, 1917, approximately 100 soldiers of the all-Black 24th Infantry Regiment marched on Houston after months of violent provocation from white civilians and police, including the brutal beating of a Black soldier and a Black police officer. The confrontation resulted in 19 deaths. The subsequent court martial — the largest in US Army history — sentenced 19 men to death by hanging and 41 to life imprisonment, a profound illustration of the contradiction Black soldiers faced serving a country that denied them basic rights.