The 24th

 

Written by Kevin Willmont and Trai Byers

Directed by Kevin Willmont

Starring Trai Byers

Distributed by Vertical Entertainment, 2020

Reviewed by Steve Halpern

The other evening, I viewed the film “The 24th.” This is a largely true story of how the racist violence of Houston, Texas in 1917 provoked the 24th African American infantry battalion to take up arms in an attempt to defend themselves.

In the summer of 1917 Houston police officers entered the home of Sara Travers, who was a mother of five children. An officer dragged Travers into the street, beat, and arrested her. 

Private Alonzo Edwards of the 24th questioned the officers about this arrest. The officers pistol-whipped and arrested him. Then, Corporal Charles Baltimore inquired about the arrest of Edwards. He was also pistol-whipped and arrested. 

A rumor circulated throughout the military camp that Baltimore had been killed by the police. After someone from the military arranged for the release of Baltimore and he returned to the base, the atmosphere calmed a bit. This atmosphere had been stoked by the routine racist violence members of the 24th had been subjected to. 

Apparently, a racist mob had been organized in Houston and the soldiers in the 24th felt the need to arm in an attempt to defend themselves. Earlier that year, a racist mob invaded the Black community in East St. Louis and murdered between 40 and 250 residents. 6,000 of those residents became homeless because this mob torched their homes. About 10,000 people demonstrated in New York City against the mass murder in East Saint Louis.  

So, about 150 members of the 24th marched into Houston armed. In all, about 20 people, including about five police officers lost their lives. As was portrayed in the film, Sargent Vida Henry shook the hands of everyone in the 24th and claimed he was preparing to commit suicide, rather than face execution. Whether Henry committed suicide or died as a result of murder is undetermined.

This film clearly portrayed the reasons why these soldiers engaged in armed rebellion. This is a strong point of the film. While government demanded that these soldiers risk their lives to defend this country, this same government supported the Jim Crow laws that stripped Black people of citizenship rights. 

The government had done nothing to convict the murderers of thousands of Black people in lynchings all over this country. All of this was in spite of the fact that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution argued that there is supposed to be “equal protection under the laws.”

So, the military court that sentenced 13 of these soldiers to death, was indifferent to the fact that the government routinely and flagrantly violated the Constitution. All that court was concerned with was the fact that these officers had murdered people. The thousands of Black people who had been lynched were of absolutely no concern.

I first learned of the 1917 rebellion in Houston when I read Paula J. Giddings excellent biography of Ida Wells titled: Ida – A Sword Among Lions. Ida Wells visited the soldiers of the 24th after they were arrested. Wells had a reputation for an uncompromising opponent of lynching, and the soldiers showed their respect by saluting her when she entered Leavenworth Penitentiary. 

In an article Wells wrote for the Defender she called the soldiers of the 24th “stalwart young chaps.” In that article she concluded that whatever “the motive and however wrong the action, his bravery and daring will make his memory live forever in the hearts of those who knew his story.” 

After returning to her home, Wells had buttons made in solidarity with the soldiers of the 24th. Federal agents visited her home and threatened her with arrest if she continued to distribute those buttons. When she asked what she would be charged with, the answer was “treason.” When the agents told Wells that her support of the 24th was a minority position she responded that she’d rather go down in “history as the one lone Negro who dared to tell the government it had done a dastardly thing.” Wells felt that it would be an “honor” to be charged with treason for defending the soldiers of the 24th.

In an article in the Crisis the newspaper of the NAACP, W.E.B. DuBois criticized the double standard of the government that allowed, “hundreds of thousands of white murderers, rapists, and scoundrels” to walk “scot-free’ and “unrebuked by the President of the United States.”

When I first read of this story, I thought that a meaningful portrayal would never make it as a film in this country. Clearly there haven’t been films made of outstanding leaders like Frederick Douglass, Ida Wells, Eugene Debs, or Mother Jones. 

I thought that a film made about African American soldiers murdering sheriffs in Houston, Texas would be too controversial for what is seen as politically acceptable in this country. Well, the screening of The 24th proved me to be wrong. Perhaps the filming of this story might be taken in context of the massive demonstrations protesting racist police murders.   

Related events to the 1917 Houston Rebellion of the 24th

We might also consider that at this time, President Woodrow Wilson was in the middle of his drive for war. Like several other Presidents, Wilson promised to avoid the war, but after he was elected he pursued a ruthless policy that sent opponents of the war to prison.

Alice Paul led a demonstration in front of the White House of suffragettes. Paul argued that Wilson’s so-called war for “democracy” was a joke when women didn’t have the right to vote. These demonstrators were arrested. While in prison, they went on a hunger strike protesting their horrendous conditions. The prison guards inserted a tube into Paul’s throat and force-fed her three times every day.

Eugene Debs gave a speech against U.S. participation in the World War I in 1918 in Canton, Ohio. Debs was charged with “sedition,” and the evidence against him was a transcript of his speech. He served three years of a ten-year sentence. 

However, between the time of the rebellion of the 24th and their execution, a revolution erupted in what had been Czarist Russia. While the Ku Klux Klan raided the Black community and murdered thousands in this country, Czarist Russian experienced a similar reality. There, the Black Hundreds raided Jewish communities and were known to murder thousands. While the government in this country refused to prosecute those who carried out lynchings, the Czar openly supported the Black Hundreds.

The new revolutionary government of the Bolsheviks declared that all the oppressed nations in that country would now have self-determination. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin argued that the support of all those nationalities was essential if the Russian Revolution would succeed. The name of the new nation was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. 

The United States government sent the armed forces to join the fourteen nations that invaded the U.S.S.R. in an attempt to overthrow the new revolutionary government. Under the leadership of Leon Trotsky, the Red Army defeated all those powers. While many of the gains of the revolution were betrayed by Joseph Stalin, that revolution continues to be an example for the world.

So, when we think of the 1917 rebellion of the 24th, we also might think of the 1917 Russian Revolution that overthrew a regime that supported racist murderers. In my opinion, this is a useful way to look at the film The 24th in context.