Chainsaw History - Part One: The Camp Logan Mutiny of 1917

Episode Date: January 17, 2024

{ Discover more at ChainsawHistory.com — access our full episode list, delve into bonus content, and support our show with a paid subscription! }Join podcasting siblings Jamie and Bambi as they return to the Jim Crow South to examine the underlying causes of the Camp Logan Mutiny. First we get a picture of where America is at in 1917 and take an uncomfortable look at the laws and social standards of former slave states. Next we learn about the all-black Buffalo Soldiers and their history of brave and honorable service despite the lies told by racist politicians such as Teddy Roosevelt. But when the United States joins World War I the Buffalo Soldiers are called to guard the construction of a training camp for new draftees—Camp Logan in Houston, a bayou town fully embracing white supremacy enforced by a brutal police force. What could possibly go wrong?In this episode we hope you'll consider donating to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in their fight for racial justice through litigation, advocacy and public education. We also express support and solidarity with the Atlanta Forest Defenders and encourage you to learn more and help stop Cop City.

It's fucking chains on history time! So after last couple of weeks we had, I think it's only fair to let the listeners know you literally abandoned your car next to a graveyard in order to be here to record today. I did. I did. I could have died. That was dedication. I had to literally leave the recording studio and go rescue my sister next to an old church building. Yep. In a graveyard. And yeah. The dead people live.

Yeah. I just locked it up and said see you later, although my husband is stealing. Yes, he's stealing. Your husband's stealing with stuff while we're here dealing with, because I mean, I'm not about to tell you about that. Yeah, well, you have to understand that my husband and I,

we made kind of like an agreement of what responsibilities belong to you. A clear division of labor. Yeah, I mean, you know, like he never does the laundry. He has done laundry like twice. It's just so many. He doesn't have to worry about his marriage.

Doesn't he? This is not something that he deals with. And I don't deal with cars. I do the inside of the house. He does the outside of the house. I deal with all the laundry. He deals with with vehicles. And I think that's a pretty good gig because the vehicles don't need all that much, all

that often where the laundry is never ending. You know, even though technically this isn't work, he took off from his actual shop to go deal with my car. Oh, I am sad now. Almost as sad as you're going to be when I tell you this horrific story. Oh, yee-yee. Yeah, so because we had our Halloween fun, B&B. We talked about some haunted houses and lying assholes.

We did, and I just told you a fun story. Yeah. It was a good time. We did a bonus episode, by the way, about Alice Roosevelt, who's spoiler alert will make a tiny, tiny little appearance in this episode. Which is weird. We did a bonus episode by the way about Alice Roosevelt, whose spoiler alert will make a tiny, tiny little appearance in this episode. Which is weird, we didn't plan that. Yeah, no, both of us deliberately kept our topics

from each other and it turns out we had a crossover episode anyway. So that's cool. We even had a crossover quote. That is how cool it is. That's all I know about this episode is there's a quote. And when you realize, when you find out what this episode is about, you're really going to be confused. So, so yeah, a few weeks back,

something hit my news feed. You know, sometimes you hear about a news item, you're like, what, and you look into it, and then you find yourself down like a rabbit hole. And in my case, I'm reading multiple books, watching documentaries, doing all this research, looking at court transcripts, and doing other things that only a maniac would do. Well, yeah, I mean, that's, that's how I fell in Alice. So, yeah, so she was scrolling across my feed one day. I have to justify all of that by recording a podcast.

Otherwise, it literally was just because I had a manic episode, kind of how I felt a few years back when I first learned about the truth about the massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921. You remember that that reaction? How the fuck did we not know about this? Yeah, no. It was visceral. It was really upsetting. Yeah, I was like, I'd heard in, you know, just through history that I took, yeah, that there was like a race right in Tulsa, but then you learn how how that was or, you know, learning the truth about where Lake Lanier comes from here in Georgia, which I'll actually mention a little bit later in this episode.

Lake Lanier is super haunted. A lot of people around there, I mean, statistically more than usual, and there are reasons. But I want to talk about any of that today. My question for you is. No haunted lakes. No. Boo. Have you ever heard of an event called

the Houston Ride of 1917, which is sometimes also known as the Camp Logan Mutiny? No. I don't blame you, because I also had never heard of this at all. And in fact, from what I gather, it's something that really only kind of like Houstonians who actually are like familiar with like really early 20th century

history or especially history of racism and civil rights and stuff like that that's they know about this but this has been mostly kind of brushed aside and forgotten and then I'm like okay so there's a little appetizer for where this story is going so I'm gonna show you, so there's a little appetizer for where this story is going. So I'm gonna show you the front page of a newspaper. This is gonna be the Houston Press issue August 24th, 1917. So you can just look at it. I mean, the text is gonna be too small to read,

but just read a few headlines like from the top and a few down for our listeners. Tell me what you see. Okay, 16 dead dead 22 injured from riot. Senate now to try Jim on charges. City under martial law. Many Negroes rounded up. More than a hundred still at large. Oh no, there's at large Negro. Yeah. Illinois National Guard Police and civilian searching for them. Leader is killed. Negro troops to be moved from Houston. Yeah, that's a nice little appetizer for what we're talking

about today. Marshall law declared by governor near midnight. Yeah. Okay, so that's fun. Sounds intense, huh? As a true crime fan, Bambi, you might be interested to know that our story today involves the murder trial with the largest number of defendants in the history of the United States. Okay. Also includes the most soldiers ever simultaneously executed by the United States Army. Okay. And we've never heard of it. Yeah, which that's already a red flag. Yeah, that's already a problem.

And again, just because, yeah, they rounded up the Negroes and then executed them for being... Well, you're about to find out what that's all about. So yeah, we're going back to the Jim Crow South, complete with racist, violent cops. This is a very complicated story, like a much of American history. Yeah. Alright, everybody, welcome to Chainsaw History, the podcast in which I use American history to continue to find older brother tradition of ruining my sister's day.

Yeah. Yeah. I went and drove you here specifically so I could just bum you the fuck out. And you're screwed. And we are the siblings. I'm Jamie Chambers and this is my sister, Bambi. Hello. Uh, remember that this is a disclaimer that we are a comedy podcast.

I'm not a historian, but I did see a history of the world part one by Mo Brooks, not part two. I heard it wasn't great. Be sure to check out chainsawhistory.com to find out how you can support the show. Check out our back catalog, see our bonus content, which includes special episodes like the Alice Roosevelt story that my sister literally just told me. Yeah, fun stuff. We also have a series called The Value of where Bambi reads children's biographies from the 1980s to me.

There were these propaganda pieces. They're weird and awful and glorious. Hey, I think some of them are also from the 70s and the 90s. Yeah, this is true. And of course, we have my little brainchild, no time for love, Dr. Jones, where we chronologically work our way through the life of Dr. Henry Walton, Jones, Jr.

all the way up until that last movie where he time traveled. Which was weird. It was weird. But we're not talking about today. We're talking about horrible, horrible racism and violence and all of the above. So yeah, we are going to give a warning up top because we're going to be talking about racial bigotry, extreme violence and state executions. Now that's through part two of this story. We can't even get to

everything today. We're going to be opening this up to you. But if you don't want to hear that kind of content, I mean, it's going to be sprinkled throughout. So this is probably not the episode for you. I mean, technically, if you don't like being bummed the fuck out almost enough, why are you listening to us? Why are you here? We try, we crack jokes when we can to make, you know, the spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down, but ultimately there's a lot of medicine today. Also worth mentioning, there's no getting around the fact that Bambi and I are incredibly white and we're also civilian. So this is a story, not only are we,

you know, white is wonder bread, but we never directly serve. So we haven't had to deal with institutional racism and we only know what it's like to serve in the military from our friends and family who did. But we'll give you our perspective, and I encourage listeners who are interested to check out other voices who talk about this story, some of which I'll quote, and you'll see detailed links in the show notes that'll take you to places with even more informed opinions. Yeah, because I could not be more white.

Yeah, or not a soldier. Yeah, no. My mom was in the military and she's very specifically told me when I was a small child that you could never be in the military. You don't follow orders very well. And I was like, yeah, I'm cool. Fuck you. I'm gonna say, thank you.

Yeah. Meanwhile, dad always said it's a shame that your health wouldn't let you join the military. So give you some discipline. This is the man who jumped ship and took a six week vacation in Europe. He's so much fun. Miss him. Indeed.

So, there is a lot of material I pulled this episode from, but we'll note the two main sources here. The first is a book called The Mutiny of Rage, the 1917 Camp Logan Riot and Buffalo Soldiers in Houston. By Jamie Salazar, fellow Jamie and Jeffrey Corn. Which came out actually just a few years ago in 2020. Kind of weirdly came out right as the George Floyd riots were breaking out. And considering George Floyd was born in Houston,

it kind of just weird little eerie, little grace note on that. The second is called Mutiny on the Bayou, the Camp Logan story, which is a documentary by K-H-O-U, a CBS affiliate in Houston, that hit the airways in 2006. I'll link to these and other sources and the show notes that you can again find over at chainsawhistory.com. So this is one of those little hidden history.

Yeah, this is sort of those little hidden history. Yeah, this is sort of like the Tulsa thing in terms of like, wow, how do we not know this? Once again, largest murder trial in the United States. Well, I mean, anyone who listens to Rachel Maddow, like finding little nuggets of history is kind of her stick and she's very good at it. And it's like, how do we not know all this?

And I've decided that it's just because there was so much fucking shit. Oh, no, there's too much. You can't know all of it. And especially the stuff that we just kind of whitewash over. Here's the thing, I mean, like when going through this story, I found at least a dozen things

that could easily turn into their own episodes. And I'll do a later, I'll do a bullet list that will literally make you think the same thing. But let's go ahead and get into it. Are you ready? No. So here's how I stumbled on this ugly, little corner of American history.

It was a piece of news, like I said, that flashed across my screen. I could easily miss the whole thing, but something about it grabbed my attention. So this was published on November 13th of this year, 2023, in a little newspaper called The New York Times. Tiny newspaper. No one's ever heard of it.

Quote, on December 11th, 1917, Thomas C. Hawkins and 12 other black soldiers who had been convicted of mutiny and other crimes during a riot in Houston earlier that year were hanged. It was the single largest max execution of American soldiers by the army. On Monday, more than a century later, the army said it had formally overturned their convictions, and those of 97 other black soldiers who were found guilty of crimes associated

with the riot. The army acknowledged that the 110 soldiers, 19 of whom were executed, had been convicted in military trials that were tainted by racial discrimination unquote Wow So you know over a hundred years later literally just weeks ago They they they finally overturned this conviction that we have to do with the story I'm about to tell you that's crazy and and and not to say this isn't this is a story where black people kill some white people.

In fact, I'm going to tell you the story. Speaking of some of the records this incident said, this is the only race riot in American history where more white people died than black. So once again, this is a complicated story. So after a century, the work of families activist in the NAACP convinced the army and the United States government to own up to another shameful patch of our history. So I've already hit you with spoilers all around. Like you already know there's a riot, people died, black soldiers were tried and executed, and that's a thing. Like I could have not led with how we

how I got here, but this story is so crazy that it doesn't it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. In fact, it's kind of good context to let you know that at least at the end of this, there's this weird tiny sort of you can't really call it justice, but at least some measure given for the families and the reputations of everyone involved and also a little bit of acknowledgement. Yeah, and about it's like a hundred years later. Yeah, better late than never. But once again, like I listened to the, some of the presentations of like this one lady

who's a historian out in Houston, who's tirelessly worked to see what her, like she wanted the story of her great uncle told. And you know, him to be allowed to be buried in a real grave and we'll get to that, you know. Yikes, okay. Yeah, so you already know where this is going, but goddamn, the story that gets us here is something else.

It's very American and very Southern. And in fact, this whole episode we're doing today is literally going to be mostly the background information and lead up. We're not even going to get to the right until next time. So we'll go ahead and tell you, this is all just kinda like, how do we get here and who are these people involved? So let's get a picture of what life was like back in the year 1917.

What the average worker made in a year could get you an 85 inch flat screen TV today. It was $687 was the average annual wage of an American. You could buy a Coca-Cola for a nickel back when it still had the cocaine. When it was cool. When it was cool, a screaming baby boy named John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born.

And Buffalo Bill Cody died. More people had a living servant than indoor plumbing. And even less homes had a telephone. Most folks still writing letters or sending telegrams for a quick message at this point. Quarter of the US population couldn't read or write. Victor Records published the first commercial jazz recording ever played by the original Dixieland Jazz Band.

But this is America, and while you might be picturing something that looks like Main Street USA Disneyland, underneath the wholesome image is a shitload of racism. I never really pictured that, but okay. It's like, I'm sorry, what year are we in again? 1917. 1917, yeah. And that's the thing, it's like even when I first just, if you just Google America 1917, you will see these pictures that kind of remind you the white painted storefronts

and the cobblestone streets and get all mainstream USA. This is right before prohibition and the Great Depression so yeah this is time this is time when America was still quite good. This is this is when we're good. Well 1917 is the year we entered World War I and the year before millions died of this Spanish flu. So, yeah, it's a hell of a time. But so, you know, slavery had been abolished with the 13th amendment and right after that happened, the priority of all white politicians was to, you know, get the country back together. And so these people who were previously big on abolition kind of gave up on

civil rights for black people at that point to make nice with the South, even the people with their hearts on the right plays mostly turn to blind eye to some pretty awful shit because this is the era of Jim Crow laws. Scholars generally accept that the term Jim Crow comes from a blackface character in a minstrel show for the 19th century named Jump Jim Crow. You know, this was a character, you know, blackface guy pretty much every awful racial stereotype bundled into one like a racist vulture on. Yeah. So, and then so this character became like the the catch all for all the laws enforcing light supremacy. And you know, we we're we shit on the south a lot and we will continue to do so because we live here

Yeah, this is this is us these these are our people But to give a little for all my southerners to get upset about that It's worth noting that the first known reference to a Jim Crow car comes from Massachusetts And in fact the practice of segregation began on northern railroads and spread in former Union states before migrating to the South. Because previously, like during slavery, there wasn't a segregation. In fact, black people lived very intimately among white people.

Segregation was imported from the North. But we embraced it. Like warm land. We should, like, nobody's business. So in 1896, the absolutely terrible United States Supreme Court made the doctrine separate but equal the law of the land in a decision called Plessy versus Ferguson in a seven to one decision. But also to be fair to our fellow southerners, let's give a quick shout out to the one voice of descent, Justice John Marshall Harlan, who wrote, quote,

ah, Constitution is colorblind. Unquote. John was a former slave owner and proof that hearts and minds can change. So we went from literally defending slavery to being the one guy who's like, ah, this Jim Crow shit. This is bullshit. Segregation is bullshit.

And he was the only voice including this was a Northern state dominated Supreme Court too, that all voted against this Kentucky boy. So once again, complicated. You can't just say, oh, the North good on race south bad. Well, everyone bad. You couldn't say that anyway. It's like this is a time period that historically people sucked. But I can tell you, like, having lived in the Midwest and traveled the Northeast, there's a lot of desire to wash their hands of that just because they weren't slave states. So let's just understand that this is bad everywhere, but we're going to talk about how

specifically bad it was in the South and Houston. Texas isn't the real South anyway. Well, we're going to get into that when it comes to Houston. So while seating on trains and trolley cars were the origin of Jim Crow laws, the encompass pretty much anything that restricted the right supervlog privileges, opportunities, and lifestyles of black Americans. So voting was restricted to the point where only a small percentage of non-whites were registered in southern states.

Facilities of all kinds had to legally be separated. So like drinking fountains and waiting rooms had crappier versions that, with a sign that said, for colored hanging over them. Oh my goodness, just because they were like, oh, you have to tell me how many bubbles are in this bar of soap. It's like that's impossible.

So yeah, they had quizzes and things. It was complete nonsense. When there were poll taxes and you had to recite the Declaration of Independence. And again, if we're in 1917, that's still around in the 50s. Oh, absolutely. So fucked up.

Interracial relationships, not to mention marriage, were prohibited by law. Vagrancy laws let the state arrest black men for the crime of being unemployed. And funny enough, you know, that same constitutional amendment that abolished slavery, you know, explicitly for Bids forced labor, but approves it as a punishment for a crime that you could just round black men throw them in there. And then because of convict leasing the state could literally rent out. You know, what would you call a forced labor that you can then. Slavery. Sla slavery. Yeah, slavery.

This was there. And we still have it. Yeah, it's still going on. Yeah. It's just it was so much more explicit back then. It was just it was out in the open and everybody knew it because you get a lot to a lot of white people. This was simply.

See now we have to disguise it as drug charges. And now you just literally well, they don't have a job. Which is crazy. Yeah. It was a job. So now you do literally, well, they don't have a job. Which is crazy. Yeah, especially if you can. They don't have a job. So now you do have a job because you're on a chain gang motherfucker. I mean, that's, and then a lot of white people literally think,

well, this is just simply putting the black people back in their proper place, fucked up. But rather than listen to me describe it, here are three ladies who actually live through it. From the documentary Mutiny on the Bayou, the Camp Logan story produced by the Houston station K-H-O-U, this is film a Scott Bryant, Hazel Young, and Henry Eddwells, who all lived in Houston where our story takes place and actually were witnesses to some of the

events. The way man expected you to stand your place, they say, and we knew how to stay in our place rather than, you know, cause a lot of trouble. That was just where it had to be at that time. You got a lot you pleased with, then they put you back in it. No matter how intelligent you were, if you were black, you didn't get any kind of recognition because white people were in it, smart, and it as they say.

In fact, it went out the way to show you you didn't have any. They didn't respect you. I thought I was supposed to sit on the back of the bush. That was a part of growing up in the South. You knew your place. And your place was in the back of the bush. I resented the segregation on the street cause because when I came back from college, I

resented it more. I had to get up and give the workers, the street workers and the construction workers, my seats, and they were dirty people. I thought they needed a bath. They didn't smell good. But I had to get up and give them my seat. And I didn't like the fact that I couldn't try on clothes. I couldn't try on shoes.

I couldn't try on hats. I might buy something and take it home and it didn't look right. But I couldn't return it. I had to keep it. There were so many things like that that were demeaning. Yeah, that's so double-checked. Agreed. Wasn't great.

I never even thought about the whole not being able to... Yeah, look, you can't try our enclosed because you're filthy black body. You know, you can't have a white person touch something that had touched a black person. That's just so goddamn ridiculous, but okay. Exactly. Let's just go. Yep, and we set up top. This is Houston. And for those who haven't been through Texas, Houston is way closer to the Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana than it is to say Dallas. It is a bayou town that is culturally part of the south far more than the southwest. We can imagine Houston as like this historical pressure cooker.

With deep racism and shitty Jim Crow laws is our very first ingredients. And you already know from those headlines that this pot is going to get overloaded and explode. Fun. And other pressure cookers had already exploded because when one group of people continually oppresses another, there is going to be tension. There is going to be incidents. There is going to be violence.

That's just what happens. Yeah, you mean sort of like what's going on right now? So there are plenty of racial violence and living memory to keep black people angry and their white neighbors afraid. Here is just like a few bullet point highlights stuff that would have been on the minds of both black and white Americans. So in 1866 a group of ex-confeder hits and racist cops crashed a meeting of black civil rights activists in New Orleans killing like 50 people. Fun! The same year in Memphis a completely different angry mob and their

cop buddies, a rampage through black homes, churches, and schools for three days, killing almost four dozen people. Why? Now we're going to skip ahead to one. There's always some triggering incident. Yeah. But you know, like, like, I could get into each one of these is a story that could be another one of these episodes. Skipping ahead to Wilmington, North Carolina in 1898, they actually elected some African-Americans to local office, leading to gangs of white supremacists, to launch a successful coup. They overthrew the government and forced black residents to run for their lives. Lovely.

But let's not leave our town out. In 1906, Atlanta newspaper spread reports of, quote, black brutes, praying on white women. You know, the same justification that was used to establish the Ku Klux Klan, which is, in fact, a lot of this violence is always like, oh, the, you know, white woman has been violated, you know, by a black man.

Let's kill them all. Yeah. That kicked off a full week of intense racial violence in Atlanta that led to the brutalization of hundreds of black residents and thousands of people fled their homes. Not a single white rioter was prosecuted. Of course not. Tears later in Springfield, Illinois, a woman named Mabel falsely accused a black man of rape, and the local sheriff relocated the accused for his own protection, which pissed

off the mob of some 5,000 racist dickheads. They went on a rampage that burned down buildings and homes, beating any black people they ran across, including women and children, and left 10% of the population homeless. The police did nothing. No one was charged, and the NAACP declared it a pogrom. And, of course, while us are known back here in Georgia, there was a thriving community of black farmers and skilled laborers in Oscarville. But in 1912, a 19-year-old white girl was found dead in the woods near the town and the

assumption was she'd been raped and killed by a black man, kicking off mob violence. When everyone rushed to the church for shelter, the mob fire bombed it. Many people died during the escape and the entire town was cleared out. And of course, in the 1950s, they built Buford Dam and created Lake Leneer, where the ruins of Oscarville still sit. Right underneath, including full 60-foot tall trees that are still just there underwater, just pointed straight up. You can swimmers can literally get caught in the tops of them sometimes. That's hot. Indeed. And spoiler alert, I have every intention

of doing a lot of research and doing the full story of Oscarville, Georgia one day. Haunted Lake linear. Yeah. So that's just like stuff that had happened in the years prior. So that was going to take us all the way to 1912, five years before our story here in 1917. So everyone was aware of the potential for bad situations to erupt.

The only difference was that some people, and this includes white and black people alike, were afraid of violence breaking out, and others were just waiting for an excuse. So let's get to the next ingredient. So it begins with another question. You ever heard the term buffalo soldier? Yes, but I have no idea what it means. You just, you've heard it. I have heard it and it's ringing a bell, but... Well, it might ring a bell with the next question. How do you feel about Bob Marley?

Now, I like Bob Marley, you know. Shot the sheriff, didn't shoot the deputy. This is true. Well, the song Buffalo Soldier was recorded in 1978, but wasn't released until after his death. So the song came out in 1983. Marley sings about the all black United States cavalry and infantry regiments that were once part of the army. And the beautiful genius even sang a lyric that might as well be the motto of our podcast. Quote, if you know your history, then you would know what you're coming from then you wouldn't have to ask me who the heck do you think I am?

Unquote but it's so much better the way he sings it. In fact we are going to ride out this episode at the end on a few bars of Buffalo soldier little Bob Marley. So let's talk up and respect to our following comrade and learn a little bit about the Buffalo soldiers. Here's a cool part of this story. Oh I'm glad there's a cool part of this story. Do you actually want me to talk up? I think we have to. Okay. All right. I think it's required.

Just so everyone knows, this is sad legal weed. Yeah. Even if we would normally lie about that particular thing or be vague, this time it really is completely and 100% legal. Yeah, it's a combination of Delta 8 and Delta 10. But it's better than Delta nothing. So this isn't what a Bob Marley's more fun songs? No, it was definitely when a Bob Marley's political songs. Basically, in this song, Marley is kind of taking back this image of these black troops

and turning them into kind of an image of resistance talking about how, yeah, they weren't, they weren't here in America by choice. They, they took the job of being a soldier because it was the best thing offered to them, but, you know, and he's making them a symbol for black power. Cool song.

You might be familiar with the statistic that by the end of the Civil War, roughly one out of every ten men serving in the Union Army was black. And that's not even counting the guys in the Navy, not nearly as many, and that began the long tradition of proud black military service in our country. And while all those troops were discharged at the conclusion of the Civil War, in 1866, Congress passed the Army Organization Act, which authorized the creation of black cavalry regiments and that phrase means about as much as you'd expect, because this is America. When or whenever truly at peace, it's not really ever been a thing.

We can't stand it. So understand that all the conflict we're about to describe is all during peacetime. We don't have war until 1917 when Congress officially declares war. Young black men enlisted for opportunity, paying work and a path to respect in larger society. And naturally our government put them to good use fighting our non-white enemies. From Mutiny of Rage, by my fellow Jamie.

Quote, from 1866 to the 1890s Buffalo soldiers served in the southwest and great plains regions. They participated in most of the military campaigns in these areas and earned a reputation for excellence. 19 enlisted men and officers from these regiments earned the Medal of Honor during the Indian Wars. In New Mexico, Buffalo soldiers gave chase to chiefs of Victoria and Nana and their Apache warriors and Victoria's war. The ninth cavalry spent the last months of 1890 guarding the Pine Ridge reservations during the Wounded Knee massacre. They removed sooners from native lands before Oklahoma's statehood. In 1918, Buffalo soldiers fought in the last engagement of the Indian Wars, the small

battle of Bear Valley and Arizona against Yakui natives. In total, Buffalo soldiers disproportionately composed up to a fifth of all infantry and cavalry personnel. To their detriment, they also served various undesirable morale-sapping roles from building roads, guarding posts, to escorting US mail. Unquote. Okay, okay. So it was in the Indian wars that gave the Black soldiers the nickname that they carried with pride ever since. So like literally from this time all the way up to war war two,

these regiments and companies, they had this this actual symbol of a buffalo. So like literally from this time, all the way up to World War II, these regiments and companies, they had this actual symbol of a buffalo. So they literally, this was not like a derogatory thing. They wore this with pride. And they got it somewhere during the Indian Wars. The book, nine years among the Indians. So we tricked the African Americans

into fighting the indigenous Americans for us. And Mexicans. Don us and Mexicans. Don't forget Mexicans. The book nine years among Indians 1870 through 1879 tells a story a bit like our fifth great grandfather David Boyd People can go check out our very second episode ever to hear that story But in this case, it's a memoir of a guy named Herman Laman who was taking captive of his child adopted into an Apache tribe and raised as a warrior. And then later on had a really tough time like reintegrating into white society. So yeah

little familiar to that other story, but this is, you know, much later. Here's what Herman has to say about the Buffalo soldiers that he encountered when he was living as an Apache. Quote, among the soldiers were some Negroes. The first most of the Indians had ever seen. The Indians thought these Negroes came from under the water, from the fact that our shadows always appear black in water. We called them Buffalo soldiers because they had curly, kinky hair and heads like bison. Our arrows would not penetrate their skulls. I remember hearing our chief instruct his warriors one time that in fighting the Buffalo soldier, never to shoot him in the head because the skull was too hard and it would turn arrows, mash the bullets, break spears, and dull

lances, but to shoot them through the heart and kill them easy." So that's a weird complicated quote, but you know, I don't think that's how that works but okay yeah whatever but I guess they were afraid which no no this is the thing these these black soldiers got got respect and so that's why you know regardless of the exact origin of the term they're like yeah we're the Buffalo soldiers mother fucker will kick your ass yeah it's like I love how we're somehow we're still the bad guys and it's like we're not doing shit So they're fighting, you know, they're fighting wait we made a fight Okay, yeah, so we said all that yep

So we send these black troops in and they're they're fighting for Western expansion so we can have our manifest destiny They're fighting Mexicans in the border wars Good job America and and know, but earning a reputation for discipline, for bravery, but you know, moving along in history, remember the main. Do you remember the main? The USS main was the battleship that exploded in the harbor of Havana in early 1898. And suddenly we were at war with Spain because we were convinced that was Spanish sabaturs who blew up our nice little battleship. And historical forensic analysis, most experts now agree it almost certainly was an accident cause with the fact that they just stored their explosives and ammunition right next to their boiler, like fucking morons. And that they were already recommendations that have been coming through

saying we need to, as a policy matter, not do that anymore. However, we love excuses. But we never waste, you know, a good opportunity to go to war. And so we did. So we sent troops to Cuba and all over the world, which is how we ended up with Puerto Rico, Guam, and for a while the Philippines. But we're going to stick to Cuba for the moment. The United States sent 17,000 troops and out of them, 3,000 were Buffalo soldiers. And this is the part where we get a carer crossover because this, of course, is- Yeah, this is where Teddy Roosevelt comes in. We play.

We get ourselves a Roosevelt up in here right now. So much has been made of Theodore Roosevelt leading the cavalry with no horses, by the way, even though the Rough Riders were technically cavalry, on a deadly charge up San Juan Hill. Teddy sure made a big fucking deal about it. Oh, he did. As he wrote a book about the whole thing and campaign on it to become the governor of New York. Mm-hmm. And eventually president. Yeah, it is always important to remember that Roosevelt was an egomaniac who had to be the center of attention and exaggerated pretty much everything. Despite the fact that he did pretty impressive shit, you know, in general. Yeah. So he's like, is weirdly frustrating guy.

But yes. Fun though, he's a good time. So just, like, so this is the idea that he is such an ego man if you cannot trust his accounts of anything because you always exaggerate, stuff and gradize or because also he was a politician would warp things to suit his own purposes. His daughter Alice, you might have heard of her.

I have heard of her. Alice once had this to say about her dad, quote, my father wanted to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding, and the baby at every chrysaning. Unquote, which is just a fucking cutting way to say, this narcissist could not even stand it. Like, a day of his daughter's wedding could not stand and not be the center of attention. No, I mean, it was funny enough.

She was, it was actually worse at Eleanor's wedding, because Teddy gave her away. And yeah, made it all about him. It was so all about him. Always the Teddy Roosevelt show. Made it all about him. It was so all about him always the Reserville show one humorist said Roosevelt's book was so exaggerated he should have called it alone in Cuba But in the middle of Teddy's bullshit is the story of some 2000 black soldiers at the Battle of San Juan Heights after reaching the top of Kettle Hill Roosevelt was still eager for glory because the Teddy Roosevelt show so he he called everybody gave this like inspiring speech and called for a charge and he flew off like a hero with like five dudes with it. And then he's like, oh shit, turned around, ran back to

get a bigger group to make the charge. And because everybody had gotten so mixed up, the rough riders were joined by both black and white regulars. So it was just this whole mix of everybody rushing up the hill in the intense heat, getting shot at the whole way. Because that's how Teddy Roosevelt likes it. Just the comical thing, it just charges up practically by himself, getting shot at it, it's like, oh fuck!

I need more, young. I need more, we need some more guys. So, I'm in shield. So a four of the black soldiers would become metal of honor recipients for rescuing comrades under fire that day. And while the skill and bravery of the black soldiers back in the frontier was mostly ignored and the conflict of Cuba saw that change a little bit, from Buffalo soldiers at San One Hill over at history.army.mIL.

But Cuba was different. All eyes that were not on TR seemed to focus on the Buffalo soldiers. For the first time, they stood at the front and center on the national stage. A number of mainstream, that is white, periodicals recounted their exploits, as nurses in yellow fever hospital at Simone as well as on the battlefield, and reviewed their history mostly favorably. Books by Black authors recounted the regiment's service in Cuba and in previous wars reminded those who cared to pay attention that the war was sprained and not represent the first

instance in which black soldiers answered the nation's call to arms. In an age of increasing racism that was hardening in institutionalized segregation throughout the South and affecting the lives of black Americans everywhere, the Buffalo soldiers were race heroes. Black newspapers and magazines tracked their movements and reported their activities, poetry, drama, and songs all celebrated their service and valor. As Rayford Logan, Dean of a generation of black historians later wrote, quote, within the quote, within the quote, "'Negro's had little, at the turn of the century, to help sustain our faith in ourselves, except the pride that we took in the ninth and tenth cavalry,

and the 24th and 25th infantry. Many Negro homes had prints of the famous charge of the colored troops of San Juan Hill. They were our Ralph Bunch, Mary and Anderson, Joe Lewis and Jackie Robinson." unquote. Teddy Roosevelt, however, was a racist asshole. Now, at the time, he had promised he would never forget the ties forged in battle with the Buffalo soldiers. He'd said great things about them immediately after the battle.

He was even quoted as saying. Until he remembered he was thereby himself. He was quoted as saying at the time, quote, no one could tell whether it was the rough writers or the men of the ninth who came forward with greater courage to offer their lives and the service to their country, unquote. But he immediately forgot all about that when campaigning to white voters up in New York, making up stories of black troops attempting to run away who had to be threatened at gunpoint

in order to get back to battle, ones that were disputed by other people who were there. Oh, Teddy. And then Teddy gave us this lovely doozy. Mm. Quote. Negro troops were sugars in their duties and would only go as far as they were led by white officers.

Unquote. So fuck you, Teddy Roosevelt. Fuck you, Teddy Roosevelt. Although I'll stick out for Alice. They're because she actually, like, wasn't a bigot or a racist and even in later life she was considered a token homosexual just because the she was like oh I'm gonna give a shit if you're gay right to the point where they were like we're gonna make you one of us. You might as well be gay. She's so cool. She was like this cool lady in the 70s, so.

Nice. But she was being driven around driving Miss Daisy style and her chauffeur gets into an accident. And the guy, he was like, watch where you're going. You black bastard. And so Alice sticks her head out the window and she goes, she's driving me, you white son of a bitch. Nice. So, that's fun. So let's be clear, those, that stuff about Black cowardice and needing, needing white officers to give them discipline, nothing more to back that statement up than Roosevelt's stupid mustache. That's just a quick introduction to the Buffalo soldiers.

After a few years of dicking around, Congress declared war on Germany in April of 1917. Early in the year, in the British interceptor the telegram that revealed a proposed military alliance between Germany and Mexico, with the promise that the crowds would assist in recovering a huge part of Mexico on behalf of the government. If they, you know, have a little...

Oh, we don't like that. Yeah, we don't like that. That's some tit for tat that you don't fucking fuck with. And then you add that with German U-boat antics, you know, that sometimes sank our merchant ships and made trade a problem. You're fucking with America in two ways that you do not fuck with America.

So where were one happened? So, yeah. So April 6th, you know, President Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war to end all wars and to make the world safe for democracy. I'm so glad that we were able to end wars after that one. It's so great. So at the time, we had a standing army of less than 300,000 men, which you might realize is a little insufficient for a World War I, but don't you worry, the Selective Service Act of 1917 fixed that shit

by drafting an additional 2.8 million. Mm-hmm, yeah, well, the draft. Mm-hmm, welcome to the draft, my friends. And as you might guess, there is a lot involved in calling up that many teenage boys to catch trenchfoot and died choking on mustard gas. Sixteen auxiliary training camps had to go up around the country, and quick. And like any self-respecting American town, Houston wanted some of that sweet, sweet federal

money. Lobbing hard, for $2 million, the city got a contract for a 7,600-acre training center for the National Guard that could hold up to 30,000 minutes of time. Camp Logan. Fun! And this, of course, is where the Buffalo Soldiers enter the mix. The 24th Infantry was split up to guard the new training camps going up. From Mutiny of Rage, quote, the 3rd battalion consisting of 654 enlisted men within IKL and M companies were

ordered to Houston for a short guard duty tour during the construction of Camp Logan. The training camp was located approximately three miles from the center of town and one mile west of the city's limits. Many of the Buffalo soldiers were combat veterans and they were salty for action. They expected to be sent off to fight in France shortly as they were ordered to pack up and bring their winter kits with them. As the camp was erected, they would police the premises and oversee a steady stream of Texas and Illinois National Guardsmen, including black units from the latter to man the barracks. In the span of a few months,

a camp half the size of Manhattan Island was built in a city whose population only approached 100,000. So out of nowhere, they're having to build a shredding cap for all these people in and bring in these black soldiers, many of whom are combat vets to guard the place while this is going on. That sounded like a good idea. No! So we've got our pressure cooker of a southern town already simmering with like deep cultural racism and enforceable laws on the books.

Now let's add over 600 proud black soldiers and turn off the heat. What could go wrong? And we're not done yet. And now some people on both the right and wrong side of history kind of had reservations about this idea. What just because it was stupid. It was really stupid.

You know, race riots, once again, were a very recent memory. Well, obviously not a memory. Uh, so, so even the more progressive voices cautioned that sending black troops into a Jim Crotown was like a very bad idea. But as you can guess, the most public voices were the bigots, such as James Vardeman, a Mississippi state senator who is quoted as saying, quote, Watts are opposed to putting arrogant, strutting representatives of the black soldier in every community. I can't have these uppity Negroes, you know.

So where are we supposed to put them though? Yeah, and of course, one of the part of the local concern in Houston was they already have a black population that's playing by the rules. Is this going to disrupt things if they start seeing, you know, black soldiers in a uniform carrying guns, having more privileges, you know, getting more respect. That could fuck up, you know, the, the, the, the problem of social order, you want to say? The status quo could be, uh, yeah. But, uh, sadly, you don't want to disrupt the status quo.

Yeah, but sadly, you don't want to disrupt the status quo, but even racism is beneath the decision to make this assignment here in the first place because the United States made the decision that they did not want to send black soldiers overseas. Also, for sort of like we are like badly racist reasons of what what would happen if they were entrenched in trench warfare, especially in those closed quarters. And you have to remember too one thing I didn't I kind of jumped immediately over but you know some of these buffalo soldiers went over to the Philippines in the Spanish American War and one of them switched sides and became like a leader of Filipino insurgents and was like a kind of a famous terrorist. So that didn't help in the minds of all of this kind of brewing in the background. That's very funny. Yeah, since I didn't want to send them a receipt, they had to find work for them stateside, and pretty much everyone expected problems with this posting. I mean,

there were rumors of white mobs forming from the moment these troops arrived in town. But the shitty Houston Chamber of Commerce wanted to let the war department know that the city would be glad to receive the soldiers as good Patriotic Americans even though only months before they'd Objected and Resented but then they were worried about losing the contract so they like no, no, they changed their tune because the only thing that more important than racism is Dala Dala Bill's well the only color of a really care about is green So listeners bills. Well, the only color of a really care about his green. So, uh, listeners might have noticed a running theme when I was talking about the race riots earlier. Or maybe you've just

like paid attention ever in your lives because you'll find them in all these stories for the last hundred years. I, of course, speak of racist cops. Cops of the worst. In Houston, the city police were about a hundred men who barely made more than the national average for like an unskilled labor. Well, that's what they may now. Yeah, from which is a problem. From mutiny of rage, quote, police who were quick on the draw and also poorly paid made for a toxic combination. At the time, the force was only 100 men strong, with only a handful of blacks. One police chief admitted to utilizing bloodhounds much in the manner of antibellum plantation owners to quote, to exert a moral effect, especially upon the meagre race.

Unquote. Mmm. So yeah, let know here when he said quick on the draw that isn't talking about like the speed in which you can whip your gun out of your holster, it's about how willing an eager someone is to threaten someone with a gun, pistol whip or shoot at them. So just literally being willing to, you know, pull your weapon out all the time. And the Houston cops had a reputation for being incredibly quick on the draw. They love pistol whipping and sometimes even just like shooting at the feet of black people, we're out of their place or drinking

from the wrong, you know, well or whatever. It's bad. So, uh, but... Super bad. I don't even know what to say. So, from mutiny on the bayou, the documentary, Professor Robert Haynes had this to say, quote, The police were putty tough in that area. They loved to chase the prostitutes, crap shooters, and they had a tendency to shoot at blacks to scare them and show the virility. Unquote.

One local black minister was quoted as saying, quote, to shoot at blacks, to scare them and show the virility." One local black minister was quoted as saying, quote, law-biting citizens feared the police and getting over the city at night more than they feared the highwaymen. Unquote. So literally, they would rather take their chances with no cops around than to just get hassled,

um, shook down, you know, arrested for no reason or beaten up, shot at whatever. So any blacks that were found on the streets at night were easy pickings. And because they had shot the black women had been run out of the brothels, any sex workers were out on the streets, which made them, you know, easily victimized by the cops. Just all, all nasty bad. So as our story begins, we have a chief of Houston police who wanted to change all of this. His name was Clarence Brock and he actually wanted to professionalize the police department

and reform it and cut through this good ol' boy culture. He was, you know, relatively progressive for 1917. But he was a veteran of running the Parks and Rec Service, not exactly an inspiring leader type. He was more of this this like, you know, pencil pushing administrator guy who's good at organizing, not necessarily good at leading men. Yeah, I guess you need to be both. So the problem is these cops didn't respect him and didn't necessarily like do what he said. They certainly didn't want to stop beating people up,

stealing shit and shaking folks down for bribes. I mean, why stop living the good life when your job doesn't pay much, the fact that you can be a corrupt bully and get so on the side is sort of the point. Yeah, I mean, that's sort of the problem is, yeah, they're not paid well, so they have to supplement their income by doing shady fucking bullshit. Yeah, there is a chicken and egg problem that we're not going to solve here today. But no, I'm so glad that we fixed it though, you know, back in the olden days of your. Good news is there hasn't been any police racism or brutality since. Oh, good.

Old and smooth sailing. Since like 1917. Oh, good. The government and business owners were eager for all that money that Camp Logan would bring, but the disruption of it all upset many of the local residents who were already convinced that sinful activities such as dice, cards, drinking, and dancing were sure to rise. What, you know, vices? Yep, and the Houston police stood ready to enforce the laws, most especially the ones that wouldn't

allow a black soldier to drink from the same water as a white civilian. The August 20th, 1917 issue of the Houston Post read, quote, 3000 Negro troops. Remember Brownsville, unquote. So this is referring to the Texas town of Brownsville in 1906. I skipped this because it really wasn't a race riot, but it was this incident that happened and this is specific to the Buffalo soldiers. Shots were fired that killed a bartender and wounded a local police lieutenant. Locals claim that the bullets were fired from Fort Brown, which just happened to house Black Infantrymen from the 25th Infantry Regiment. But there was no evidence that could directly tie anyone to the shootings. And since no one could be charged, the mayor of the town went all the way to the President of the United States. That's right. Our boy, Theodore Roosevelt.

Oh, good. What did Teddy do? On one hand, you had a listed troops of the United States Army, some of the very men that Teddy fought alongside down in Cuba, and on the other side, you had an angry racist white mob. Oh, Teddy. What did you do? Under the orders of the president, 167 soldiers were discharged with zero evidence, no trial, and not a single opportunity to speak in their own defense. So once again, fuck you, Teddy Roosevelt. Really? I'm not surprised, but I am a little ashamed of you. It's theodore. It's pretty sad that it was Richard Nixon

of all people who reversed this injustice in 1972. So he reversed their dishonorable discharge and then honorably discharged them in retro so that they could have full honors and benefits and military decorations on their graves and et cetera. Ah, ah. Yeah, so everyone in Houston remembered Brownsville. So basically it's like we're gonna do all this shady shit to you.

We'll wait a hundred years and then we'll fix it. So literally the paper says, remember Brownsville and all the white people are like remember when those black soldiers murdered our favorite bartender and shot that cop. And then the black soldiers are thinking remember that time that a bunch of people got fucked over for bullshit reason So everybody remembers Brownsville going into this. Oh, lovely. How you remembered it just depended on the color of your skin And that's where we're gonna actually have to leave things today Next episode our pressure cooker explodes in a night of violence like I said, is the only time in American history for a race riot when more white people died than blacks

because some people get angry with the shit that happens next. Thanks to racist cops and just this, like I said, this powder keg or pressure cooker, whatever you wanna call it. This really bad idea of putting these soldiers into this exact kind of place. This is a terrible idea.

So we will get back to it and tell everything that happened and even talk a little bit about the work of activists and family members who worked to at least clear the names of them and involved. So like we haven't even gotten to the shit yet. This is just the background, but you need this in order to really appreciate what happens next. Yeah, you need the ingredients so you can really fucking sit in this bullshit stew.

Exactly. But that's it for now. So thank you everybody for listening and thank you to our friend Kevin and Ravensson Studios for hosting us and making us sound good. Thank you, Kevin. Once again, if you want to hear more of this stuff, you should go to chainsawhistory.com. That's where we can hear all of our previous episodes, including all of those bonus episodes. We talked about one shots like Dambi's Alice Roosevelt

coverage, the value of series of children's books, no time for love, Dr. Jones, where we talk about the life of Indiana Jones in the context of history. You also find Bat-Ketalog bonus articles and lots of stuff soon. You can also even subscribe to our show and actually help us pay for our hosting fees. Yeah, well, no time for Jones. Doctor love sounds like that's porn.

That's something. Don't look that up. When it comes to the charity, I want to support this week. The NAACP worked with families and activists for literally over a hundred years to overturn the injustice under the American soldiers in today's story. So I recommend our listeners consider a donation to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. They fight for racial justice through litigation,

advocacy, and public education. You can learn more and support them at www.NAACPLDF.org. I'm still supporting stopcopcity.org Which also was super appropriate for this story. Yes, it is. Stop the cops. So and yeah, because they don't need militarized training facilities for urban worker. Yeah, where we cut down a huge, you know, huge chunk of the only green area in the metro Atlanta area, displacing all kinds of people and doing against the wishes of the people who area in the Metro Atlanta area, displacing all kinds of people,

and doing against the wishes of the people actually live there. You can go to stopcopcity.org, and you can also check out the Atlanta Solidarity Network if you would like to support bail efforts for people who get arrested for bullshit reasons defending the Atlanta Forest. Yeah, and I think there's going to be another week of action coming up after the holidays like in February I think.

Yep, and keeping up with stuff going on that. So check that out if you're interested. It certainly applies to this story here because fuck racist cops. Yeah, fuck the cops. And we are out. See you everybody. Bye. Then you were your area coming from Then you were the nothing that's me Oh yeah, you were the thing that I am And just a buffalo soldier

In the heart of my... Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.