The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 76, July 1972 - April, 1973 Page: 438
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438
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Houstonians would tolerate no breach of existing racial customs by
soldiers for fear it would set off a chain of black civilian reaction. Lee
Sparks was representative of southern policemen who saw themselves as
self-proclaimed defenders of the "southern way of life," and few promi-
nent Houstonians were bold enough to criticize their methods of en-
forcing racial segregation.76
The results of this Houston encounter were tragically predictable.
The Houston riot and mutiny of 1917 was closely followed by the larg-
est court-martial in American military history, by the mass execution of
thirteen soldiers at Camp Travis at dawn on December 11, 1917, and by
the sentencing of forty-one others to life in prison.77 Not satisfied with
this impressive retribution, the army tried 55 more soldiers in two addi-
tional courts-martial which sentenced 16 to hang and 12 to life terms.78
Under extreme pressure from enraged Afro-Americans, President
Woodrow Wilson saved ten of the latter sixteen men who were con-
victed of capital offenses from the gallows by commuting their sentences
to life in prison.79 The rendering and execution of these verdicts closed
76 Sparks learned little from the riot experience of August 23. The following Sunday,
August 26, he shot and killed a black Houstonian, Wallace "Snow" Williams, according to
two black witnesses. Sparks was indicted for the murder of Williams but the jury took only
"one minute" to acquit him. Houston Press, August 27, September 8, October 15, 16, 1917.
There are numerous studies of racial attitudes in the post-Reconstruction South. The
best and most thorough are Claude H. Nolen, The Negro's Image in the South (Lexing-
ton, 1967) ; I. A. Newby, Jim Crow's Defense: Anti-Negro Thought in America, 1900oo-930
(Baton Rouge, 1965); George M. Frederickson, The Black Image in the White Mind: The
Debate on Afro-American Character and Destiny, 1817-1914 (New York, 1971). Some idea
of race relations in Houston during the first two decades of the twentieth century can be
gleaned from David G. McComb, Houston, The Bayou City (Austin, 1969), 157-165-
77 The trial of the first group of 63 soldiers consumed the entire month of November,
1917. Although the court reached its verdict on the evening of November 30, it was not
announced until after the 13 men sentenced to death had been hanged at 7:17 o'clock on
the morning of December 11, 1917, along the banks of Salado Creek adjacent to Camp
Travis. Houston Chronicle, November 1, 2, December 2, 12, 1917. For an excellent de-
scription of the hanging, witnessed by a Houstonian stationed at Camp Travis, see ibid.,
December 13, 1917. Other interesting accounts of the mass executions are in New York
Age, December 22, 1917; Cleveland Gazette, December 15, 1917; Chicago Broad Ax, De-
cember 15, 1917.
78 A table, dated December 2o, 1918, and indicating the disposition of the 118 soldiers
accused of participating in the Houston mutiny and riot, is in Records of the Judge Ad-
vocate General, General Court Martial Case 109045, Box 5384C.
79A delegation of the New York branch of the N.A.A.C.P., headed by James Weldon
Johnson, presented petitions to President Wilson, signed by approximately 12,000 persons,
which requested executive clemency for the five soldiers condemned to death in the second
court-martial. Crisis, XV (April, 1918), 283. For reaction of both the black and white press
to this verdict, see ibid., XV (February, 1918), 187-189. See also W. F. Crozart et al. to
President Wilson, telegram (copy), January 7, 1918, Woodrow Wilson Papers, series 4
(Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.); Rev. F. A. Cullen to Joseph
Tumulty, February 13, 18, 1918, ibid. The position of the Wilson administration was ex-
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 76, July 1972 - April, 1973, periodical, 1973; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101202/m1/494/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.