Brownsville Affair [Texas] - 1906

 Brownsville Affair [Texas] - 25th U.S. Regiment

In 1906, the 25th U.S. Regiment [Colored] was stationed at Fort Brown, TX; it included 20 servicemen from Kentucky. Soon after the men arrived at the Fort, tensions ensued between whites in Brownsville and the soldiers. On August 13th, a bartender was killed and a police officer wounded; the men of the 25th Regiment were blamed for both. President Theodore Roosevelt had 167 men dishonorably discharged from the service.

In 1970, author John D. Weaver investigated the incident and found that the men of the 25th Regiment were all innocent; he published his investigation in The Brownsville Raid. As a result of Weaver's book, the U.S. Army conducted an investigation into the Brownsville incident and also found that the men were innocent. The Nixon Administration reversed President Roosevelt's 1906 order, and in 1972, the men of the 25th U.S. Regiment were given honorable discharges (but without back pay).

In December 1972, an article was placed in the Lexington Leader seeking the descendants of the 20 men from Kentucky. Below are the names and birth locations of 19 of the men.

·                                 Pvt. Henry W. Arrin, Pembroke

·                                 Corp. Ray Burdett, Yosemite

·                                 Pvt. Strowder Darnell, Middletown

·                                 Musician Hoytt Robinson, Mt. Sterling

·                                 Pvt. Samuel Wheeler, Clark County

·                                 Pvt. Richard Crooks, Bourbon County

·                                 Pvt. Edward Robinson, Mulborough

·                                 Pvt. Benjamin F. Johnson, Fayette County

·                                 Pvt. Charles Jones, Nicholasville

·                                 Musician Joseph Jones, Midway

·                                 Pvt. Thomas Taylor, Clark County

·                                 Sgt. Luther T. Thornton, Aberdeen

·                                 Corp. Preston Washington, Lexington

·                                 Pvt. Charles E. Rudy, Dixon

·                                 Pvt. William VanHook, Oddville

·                                 Pvt. August Williams, Hartford

·                                 Pvt. Stansberry Roberts, Woodford County

·                                 Pvt. William Smith, Lexington

·                                 Pvt. John Green, Mulborough

For more see Brownsville Affair in Wikipedia; Brownsville Raid of 1906, at The Handbook of Texas Online; and "Descendants of cleared Black soldiers sought," Lexington Leader, 12/05/1972, p. 2B.

Source: Notable Kentucky African Americans Database