Black Soldiers Digging in For Battle, Versilia Italy 1944
I slowly turned over and could see through the haze of sleep my momma in the kitchen. We lived in a cabin with two rooms. In the middle of the cabin was a wood burning stove. My brother and I slept in the main room and my Momma, Daddy and small brother slept in the other room. It was dark outside and I could hear the wind blowing through the cracks in the door. ” Get up baby, I need you to go outside and bring in some wood.” I didn’t answer her, but pulled the covers back and put on my clothes. The wooden floor was cold and it creaked as I bent over to get my shoes from under the bed. As I headed for the door, I glanced over at mamma in the dimly lit kitchen and she looked at me and smiled, “Put your coat on baby, and hurry, the school bus will be here soon.” The wood bin was at the end of the cabins. It was no more that 100 steps, but the smell of wood burning in those cabin, the car lights as they passed by the sentry and the twinkling of the stars over the blackened trees, always turned the mundane choir into an adventure which I never got tired of. “Ah ha!! My destination!!” I pick up about three logs and start back to the cabin. Halfway back, the cabin door opens, my father looks out and motions to me to hurry. Inside momma is setting breakfast on the small metal table. Daddy, my brother and I sit down to eat. Momma sits on our bed feeding my little brother. Scrape.. clank.. scrape.. clank, as daddy scooped out a helping of eggs and put it on our plates. We mostly eat in silence, except for the occasional, “You better eat all of that.” Daddy would usually finish first and then go into their room and finish dressing. After my brother and I finished, we would usually go and sit with momma on the bed while she finished feeding my little brother. Finally daddy would come out the room dressed in his Army fatigues and would have his cap tucked in the small of his back. He would come over and kiss momma, look at us lovingly and head for the door. Just like clockwork and just before he opened the door, my brother and I would run up to him, “Daddy can we go with you to work!” Daddy would smile, “I will take ya’ll Saturday.” Then he would take his cap from out the small of his back, put it on and leave. My brother and I would smile and laugh at each other and run back to sit on the bed with momma. “Mamma we going with daddy to the bakery Saturday!!” – The Hill Family, Fort Belvoir Virginia 1963
Fort Lawton – August 14, 1944
During the World War II, Fort Lawton in Seattle, Washington was home to a prisoner of war (POW) camp. Captured enemy troops from Mussolini’s fascist Italian army were kept there. In 1944 although you were the enemy, if you were white, in America your skin color still put you above African American soldiers. Like in all POW camps in America, Fort Lawton was no different and problems broke out between the white POW’s and black soldiers. On the night of August 14, 1944 a trio of Black soldiers got into altercation with Italian POW’s. In the ensuing fight a Black soldier was knocked out. The Italians fled. Now, the Italians and Black soldiers were separated by a fence. The barracks where the Black soldiers slept was known as the “Colored Area.” After hearing about the altercation between the Italian POW’s and the Black soldiers, other Black soldiers stormed the Italian POW’s camp and a riot ensued. More than forty minutes passed before a contingent of MPs arrived. By then, dozens of men were injured. The most seriously injured were all Italian prisoners-of-war. They were transported to hospitals for treatment. The military policemen restored order without taking anyone into custody and later, they claiming it had been too dark to identify any of the participants in the riot. Now don’t ask if the MP’s were white or black, because history doesn’t record their “their” skin color and no I didn’t say race because we are all part of the human race. Anywho, it hit the fan and I ain’t talking about hot air, when one Guglielmo Olivotto, an Italian POW was found hanging from a noose in a tree not far from the camp. In 1944 there were two rules written in stone as far as Black soldiers were concerned. Don’t talk to a white women and don’t hang no white man. Now what I am about to tell you is the god’s honest truth. By sunset on the day Olivotto’s body was found, Colonel Harry Branson, Fort Lawton’s commanding office ordered all evidence destroyed. No fingerprints were secured, no footprints saved, and no weapons catalogued. Furthermore, he was getting ready to ship the Black company out the very next day to San Francisco. Now, I want to make something very clear, “There were no Black commanding officer’s in charge of any United States Army base in America in 1944.” Branson was white. Why he did it, I don’t know. Did he pay for it? You bedda bet on it? Now as I said in addition to the hanging of a white man by Black men, which was a no, no, the United States was also a signatory to the Geneva Convention. The Geneva Convention was a set of protocols used to make sure any captured enemy was treated in a humane fashion. All they need was a picture of German’ and Italians hanging white soldiers on the front page of the New York Times. “Now they done gone and did something!!” So yeah Americans hanging enemy soldiers was saying something.. especially black soldiers hanging white soldiers!!
The United States Army sent a prosecutor named, Leon Jaworski to conduct a two-month investigation. If the name sounds familiar, it is. He was the special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal. Although there have only been two Presidents impeached in the history of the United States, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, Richard, “I ain’t no crook” Nixon had been charged with three impeachable offenses, but resign before the charges were sent to the House Of Representatives. Anywhooooo.. “Jaworski demanded complete control of both the criminal investigation and the courtroom prosecution. For more than two months, he and his investigators grilled suspects and potential witnesses; more than one suspect complained about coercion and intimidation, including threats to lynch uncooperative African-American soldiers. Evidence went missing, questionable accusers were granted immunity and contradictory evidence was ignored.” – USSlave.Blogspot. Wow.. you could have knocked me over with a feather. After all was said and done, Jaworski charged 43 African American soldiers with crimes. Some of the crimes called for the death penalty. It was the largest number of soldiers charged in a single case during World War II. As usual the black defendants were given poor legal representation and little time to mount a defense. If fact they only had 10 days. Forty three men, ten days, one lawyer and a former football player who assisted the lead attorney for the men.. Nope that’s not a typo.
The nine-member court-martial, one black officer and eight white officers, ( now that’s a typo.) they were all white and they convened on November 16, 1944. After five weeks in what was the longest United States Army court-martial of World War II, the court found 28 of the 43 defendants guilty of rioting. They found two, Luther Larkin and William Jones, guilty of manslaughter. The sentences ranged from six months to 25 years hard labor. Hard labor back in the 1940’s meant breaking rocks and singing “Mammy” at the same time. By the time the War ended in 1945, President Harry Truman reduced the sentences of thousands of soldiers in what was called the Christmas Time Clemencies. After five years in prison the last of the Lawton accused were released. On October 26, 2007, the ABCMR ruled unanimously that Leon Jaworski had committed “egregious error” in his prosecution of the Fort Lawton case, particularly by refusing to make the Cooke Report available to the defense. The board, calling the trial “fundamentally unfair”, overturned the convictions. They ordered that defendants be issued retroactive honorable discharges. In addition, the surviving defendants – or the estates of those who have since died – were deemed entitled to “all rights, privileges and property lost as a result of the convictions”, including “all due pay and allowances”.
At the end of 2007 the US Army sent out checks for $725. You see there was no law saying that the Army had to pay interest on the money they owed the men. On January 23, 2008, Rep. Jim McDermott introduced HR 5130 in the House, authorizing the U.S. Army to pay interest on the Fort Lawton awards. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) introduced companion bill S 2548 in the Senate. On October 14, 2008, President George W. Bush signed the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2009. The bill included the legislation authorizing the Army to add tens of thousands of dollars interest to the back pay due to the Fort Lawton veterans. On December 6, 2012, Roy Montgomery, the last surviving member of the Lawton Accused, died at the age of 91. The Army is currently paying the descendants of the Lawton Accused.
This is a fascinating story and I could not do it justice on this news blog. I highly recommend reading “Lynching in Seattle.”
Be the first to comment