Leon Gilbert

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Leon A. Gilbert
unknown
Place of birth York, Pennsylvania?
Allegiance U.S. Army
Years of service 1940-1950
Rank Lieutenant
Unit 24th Infantry Regiment
Commands Company A, 24th Infantry Regiment
Battles/wars World War II
Korean War

Leon A. Gilbert of York, Pennsylvania was a decorated World War II combat veteran and a lieutenant in the all-Negro 24th Infantry Regiment that fought in the Korean War. His court-martial for refusing to obey an order from the regiment's white commanding officer led to world-wide protests and increased attention to segregation and racism in the U.S. military.

Contents

[edit] Background

By the early 1950s, various Executive Orders had been issued attempting to end segregation in the U.S. armed forces. They had been largely ineffectual. The 24th Infantry Regiment, which consisted entirely of black soldiers, was thrown into the forefront of the Korean fighting at the outset.

Casualties in the 24th were extremely heavy, and replacements and supplies, including shoes, were slow in coming. Stories began to filter out through various black news sources of atrocities committed by white American officers against the black troops they were leading. At one point the U.S. Air Force bombed the 24th by mistake, resulting in serious casualties.

On August 6, 1951, Colonel Arthur S. Champeney, a white man, was appointed the 24th's commanding officer and informed them he was going to change their reputation from "the frightened 24th to the fighting 24th."

[edit] Gilbert's case

I thought I was doing the right thing. I still think so. -- Gilbert, after sentencing

Lieutenant Gilbert enlisted in the Army in 1940. He served with the 92d Division in Italy and was honorably discharged in 1946, then called up again as a reservist in 1947. He was thus a decorated veteran with a record of ten years' service in the Army.[1] He and his wife Kay had two children with a third on the way.

In the fall of 1950, Gilbert was in command of Company A of the 24th, having taken over when his commanding officer was wounded. He received an order to return with twelve of his men to a forward position, an action that would have been tantamount to suicide.[2] Despite Gilbert's suffering from shock and fatigue due to prolonged heavy fighting (according to a letter to his wife, they had gone thirteen days without food or water[3]), he was accused of insubordination and cowardice, and a court martial sentenced him to death. In an interview with the New York Times, Gilbert gave his version of the incident.

"I did not refuse to obey the order. I was trying to explain why it couldn't be carried out. There were twelve men in my command. Then I considered it my duty as an officer to show why the order meant certain death." [4]

A storm of public protest erupted around the world in reaction to the sentencing; in the U.S. labor leader, church leaders, and the American Legion became involved, and the National Negro Council collected 600,000 signatures on a petition for his pardon.[5] President Truman commuted the sentence to 20 years' imprisonment at hard labor, dishonorable discharge, and forfeiture of all pay and pension allowances.

In September of 1952 the sentence was reduced to seventeen years for "battle misconduct."[6] Gilbert served five years, the maximum penalty for disobedience under peacetime conditions (war was never officially declared in Korea), before he was released.

Following the court-martialing of Lieutenant Gilbert, mass court-martialing of whole units of the 24th Regiment ensued, with no comparable action being taken against white units.

Thurgood Marshall, general counsel of the NAACP, wrote "The letters we have received from convicted soldiers and the talks we have had with war correspondents strongly indicate that many of these men have been victimized by racial discrimination...It seems apparent that some of them are being made scapegoats for the failures of higher personnel."[citation needed]

In 1996, an official Army report noted that Gilbert's regiment performed poorly in the early years of the Korean conflict, as did many white units, but went on to say, "There was no single reason for what happened (to the 24th)...An aggressive enemy, old and worn equipment, inexperience at all levels, leadership failures high and low, casualties among key personnel and a lack of bonding and cohesion in some units all played their part. There was no lack of courage among the officers and men."[citation needed]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "Truman asked to bar death for officer," New York Times, Sept 23, 1950, p.32
  2. ^ "Death Sentence Studied" New York Times, Oct. 7, 1950, p.2
  3. ^ "Truman asked to bar death for officer," New York Times, Sept 23, 1950, p.32
  4. ^ "Doomed officer denies cowardice" New York Times, Oct. 15, 1950, p.9
  5. ^ "Pardon petitions pushed," New York Times, Sept 5, 1951, p.29
  6. ^ "Army Cuts Sentence" New York Times, Sept. 21, 1952, p.45

[edit] Sources

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