Camp Logan centennial events seek to turn tragedy into lesson for present
Houstonians urged to ‘forge bonds’ as marker is rededicated and new headstones unveiled
A century after the violent Houston clash between black Army soldiers and white civilians and police that left three dozen people dead or wounded, two servicemen lost in the Camp Logan mutiny were honored with military headstones.
Grave markers for Sgt. Vida Henry and Pvt. Bryant Watson, who died on Aug. 23, 1917, were unveiled Wednesday morning at the historic College Park Cemetery.
Later in the afternoon, the Texas Historical Commission marker honoring Camp Logan, which stands on the edge of Memorial Park, was rededicated following repairs.
The programs were part of a week of Camp Logan centennial events arranged by the Houstonbased Buffalo Soldiers National Museum.
The Camp Logan Riot, as the mutiny came to be known, was one of the darkest days in Houston’s history. Black soldiers from the Army’s Third Battalion of the 24th Infantry Regiment left a World War I training camp against orders at what is now Memorial Park. The military men exacted revenge for humiliating and sometimes physically abusive treatment by local white citizens and police officers.
In the end, 16 people died — including five police officers — and 22 others were wounded (although numbers vary in historical accounts). The riot also begot murder trials resulting in 19 men hanged and 53 handed life sentences. The episode was a lasting stain on the U.S. military and particularly the 24th Infantry, whose proud history would henceforth contain a horrible chapter.
“No one here today would want to live in Houston 1917. Being separated from one another along a color line makes for an oppressive society for the ones being oppressed as well as for
the ones enforcing the law. No one wins,” said Angela Holder, a history professor at Houston Community College whose great-uncle was among the men executed. “They took it upon themselves to fight for the basic dignity all of us as human beings are entitled to, but, unfortunately, some innocent people died in that struggle. No one wins.” ‘We can be better’
Watson perished from friendly fire, Holder said, and Henry is believed to have taken his life the night of the riot.
Pvt. Wiley Strong has received a third military headstone and is buried at a local Catholic cemetery, according to J.M. Hedge, assistant director of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Houston regional benefit office. He helped arrange for the veteran headstones.
At the marker ceremony on the grassy corner of Haskell and Arnot, Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle commented on how the centennial commemoration led to the state historical marker’s repair through a collaboration with the county to fund the restoration.
“It is appropriate that we are gathered here today to remember what went on so that we can take what was good and we can take what was bad and we can be better,” he said.
Others also spoke about mending the wounds of the past by embracing the international diversity of Houston today.
“We will learn from this,” Memorial Park Conservancy President and CEO Shellye Arnold said. “We have an opportunity at this moment to forge bonds … with our fellow Houstonians who may or may not be like us.”
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and Mayor Sylvester Turner also bridged the past with the present in their remarks.
“As we honor this 100 years, we are in the backdrop of a national discussion on race again,” the congresswoman said. “We will fail in another 100 years if we don’t find ways to discuss the question of race and racism.”
Turner encouraged people of goodwill to act. Moving forward
“How can we as Houstonians remember the history of Camp Logan and use that history to set an example of tolerance and understanding? Well, when good people stand up … then we will have a better world,” the mayor said. “I believe that the history of Camp Logan is shouting out in 2017 for good people — of all races, of all languages, of all ethnicities — for good people to stand up and say: We are all in this world together and you are not going to divide us.”
Charles Cook, a history buff and co-president of the nonprofit that cares for Houston’s historic Olivewood Cemetery, said the rededication set the right tone for the city to move forward in the next century.
“It’s a healing process,” the Metro retiree said.
The week of events continues on Friday at the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, 3816 Caroline, with a 6 p.m. reception followed by excerpts from a Camp Logan play at 7 p.m. A Saturday lecture series begins at 10 a.m. with a keynote address by black military historian Chad Williams at 1 p.m. and remarks from mutiny descendants at 2:30 p.m.