The Black Blogger Remembers December 11, 1917 Thirteen Brave Black Souls

The Thirteen Brave Black Souls

Sgt. William Nesbitt
Corp. Larsen J. Brown
Corp. James Wheatley
Corp. Jesse Moore
Corp. Charles Baltimore
Pvt. William Brackenridge
Pvt. Thomas C. Hawkins
Pvt. Carlos Snodgrass
Pvt. Ira B. Davis
Pvt. James Divine
Pvt. Frank Johnson
Pvt. Rosley W. Young
Pvt. Pat MacWharter

13 black soldiers who were hanged on December 11, 1917,​ without the ​benefit of an appeal after being convicted of participating in the Riot of Houston, Texas that occurred on August 23, 1917. The Blackman Who Reads Aloud reads accounts of the riot as well as the unjust hanging of these thirteen brave black souls who showed no fear when certain death awaited them in a nation that had no respect for their rights as soldiers or citizens.

This isn’t the history that is retold in America’s textbooks that ignore the reality of America’s racist past. This is the history that one must uncover to mask the racial hatred that our ancestors had to endure. So as I look back a century I cannot fail to acknowledge the ultimate sacrifice these soldiers faced without as much as a whimper. I hope on this day we won’t allow that sacrifice to forgotten.