Advocates push for clemency for Black soldiers in 1917 riot

HOUSTON (AP) — A group of attorneys and advocates are seeking clemency for 110 Black soldiers who were convicted in a mutiny and riots at a military camp in Houston in 1917. The Houston Chronicle reports that the South Texas College of Law Houston and the NAACP have signed an agreement pledging to continue fighting for clemency for the soldiers of the all-Black Third Battalion of the U.S. Army’s 24th Infantry Regiment. They plan to ask the Secretary of the Army to posthumously grant honorable discharges and urge the Army Board for Correction of Military Records to recommend pardons to President Joe Biden. The soldiers were either executed or given long prison sentences.