Digital Collections: Houston Mutiny & Riot Records

This collection consists of records concerning one of the largest race riots in American history, the mutiny and riot of soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 24th U.S. Infantry that occurred on August 23rd, 1917 at Camp Logan (now Memorial Park), Houston, Texas, which resulted in the largest murder trial in American history.  The mutiny and riot were sparked by the racism directed towards the African-American soldiers by the police and citizens of Houston.  The rioting of the soldiers caused several deaths.

The mutiny and riot resulted in three general courts-martial held at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas, in late 1917 and early 1918, at which 118 soldiers were tried, 110 soldiers were convicted, 19 were executed, and 91 were sentenced to various terms of confinement at the U.S. Penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

The records consist of a microfilmed file from the War Department's Inspector General's Office, a microfilmed file from the records of the Headquarters, Southern Department of the U.S. Army Continental Command, as well as numerous microfilmed files from the War Department's Office of the Judge Advocate General.

The file from the Inspector General's Office consists of 573 pages of testimony taken by the Citizen's Committee of Houston, Texas, one week after the riot.  From the records of the Southern Department of the U.S. Army Continental Command is the 14 page Report of Colonel G. O. Cress, completed three weeks after the incident, which summarized an investigation into the riot.  From the Judge Advocate General's Office are the transcripts of three courts-martial: U.S. vs. Sergeant William C. Nesbit, et al., at which 63 of the soldiers were tried (2354 pages); U.S. vs. Corporal Robert Tillman, et al., at which 40 of the soldiers were tried (3290 pages); and U.S. vs. Corporal John Washington, et al., at which 15 of the soldiers were tried (540 pages). Also included are Correspondence Files from the Office of the Judge Advocate General, including files on each of the soldiers involved in the incident.

The original records are found in Record Groups 153 and 393, Modern Military Records Branch, Textual Archives Services Division, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland.  

Berg, Alan (dir). Buffalo Soldier Mutiny: Houston 1917. (2008) Color, 74 minutes

Christian, Garna L.  Black Soldiers in Jim Crow Texas, 1899-1917.  College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1995.

Haynes, Robert V.  “Houston Riot of 1917.”  The New Handbook of Texas, 1996, and The Handbook of Texas Online. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/HH/jch4.html

Haynes, Robert V.  “The Houston Mutiny and Riot of 1917,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly, April 1973, vol. 76, no. 4, pp. 418-439.

Haynes, Robert V.  A Night of Violence: The Houston Riot of 1917.  Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1976.

Hazlewood, Claudia.  “Camp Logan.”  The New Handbook of Texas, 1996, and The Handbook of Texas Online. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/CC/qcc26.html

Johnston, Marguerite.  "Mutiny," Houston: The Unknown City, 1836-1936.  College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1991.

Minton, John.  The Houston Riot and Courts-Martial of 1917.  San Antonio, Tex: Carver Community Cultural Center in cooperation with the University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio, 1990.

Mutiny on the Bayou [videorecording]: The Camp Logan Story.  Houston, Tex.: KHOU-TV, 2006.  [Broadcast date: February 1, 2006.  This locally produced documentary tells the dramatic story of the 1917 events surrounding the famous Buffalo Soldiers as they were ordered to guard Camp Logan (now Memorial Park).  Civil unrest led to a race riot and the deaths of 16 Houstonians, including 5 police officers.  The program explores the emotional and cultural pressures that brought a group of black soldiers with a record of exemplary service to a military court and then to the executioner's gallows.]

Park, Phocion Samuel.  The Twenty-fourth Infantry Regiment and The Houston Riot of 1917.  Thesis (M.A.)—University of Houston, 1971.

Schuler, Edgar A.  "The Houston Race Riot, 1917," The Journal of Negro History, vol. 29, no. 3 (July 1944), pp. 300-338.

Smith, C. Calvin.  “The Houston Riot of 1917, Revisited,” The Houston Review: History and Culture of the Gulf Coast, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 85-102.

Smith, C.S.  Race Riot: Houston, Texas, August 23, 1917.  Detroit, Mich.: Smith, 1917.  (Pamphlet which consists of a reprinted letter to the editor of the Detroit Free Press on August 25, 1917, condemning the rioting in Houston, and Bishop C. S. Smith's response of August 27, 1917, requesting that readers not rush to judgment concerning the riot before all of the facts are known.)

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