Fort Lawton Riot
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| Fort Lawton Riot | |
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| Fort Lawton guard house as it appears today | |
| Participants: | United States Army soldiers and Italian prisoners of war (POW) |
| Location: | Fort Lawton, Washington, United States (U.S.) |
| Date: | August 15, 1944 |
| Status: | 1 Italian POW killed, 28 U.S. soldiers convicted and imprisoned |
The Fort Lawton Riot occurred on August 15, 1944 at Fort Lawton in Washington, United States (U.S.) during World War II. In the incident, United States Army soldiers assaulted Italian prisoners of war (POW), resulting in the death of one of the POWs, Guglielmo Olivotto.
The riot stated after a night of heavy drinking and a fistfight between an Italian prisoner and a black solider. Black solders attacked the Italian prison barracks. Unarmed victims were attacked with knives and wooden clubs causing broken limbs. One black soldier drove a Jeep repeatedly over an occupied tent.
Forty-three U.S. Army soldiers were charged with criminal conduct in the riot, with 28 convicted and sent to prison. Most of those convicted spent less then four years in prison and were dishonorably discharged. The prosecutor in the case was Leon Jaworski who would later rise to fame for his efforts in the Nuremberg Trials and the Watergate Scandal. A controversial aspect of the incident is that all of the U.S. Army soldiers charged were African American, with some observers and historians claiming that racism played a part in the decision of who was charged and how they were prosecuted for alleged participation in the riot and complicity in the death of Olivotto.[1].
A book written by Seattle journalist Jack Hamann entitled On American Soil reported that an investigation by Brigadier General Elliot D. Cooke at that time had concluded that prosecutorial misconduct was so grievous it was almost impossible to figure out which of the black soldiers at Fort Lawton had taken part in the beatings and which had not. He also reported that Jaworski had known of Cooke's findings but kept the investigation secret. Following publication of the book and complaints from relatives of those convicted the U.S. military in October 2007 ordered convictions in the case be overturned and that all of the soldiers receive (mostly posthumous) honorable discharges.
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[edit] References
[edit] Notes
- ^ Yardley, "1944 Conviction of Black G.I.’s Is Ruled Flawed".
[edit] Books
- Hamann, Jack (2007). On American Soil: How Justice Became a Casualty of World War II. University of Washington Press. ISBN 0295987057.
- Moreo, Dominic W. (2004). Riot at Fort Lawton, 1944. iUniverse. ISBN 0595662544.
[edit] Web
- Fredrix, Emily (January 20, 2008). Court-martial voided, late black WWII veteran honored at his gravesite (Newspaper article). Boston Globe. Retrieved on 2008-01-22.
- MacIntosh, Heather, Priscilla Long, and David Wilma (July 6, 2005). Riot involving African American soldiers occurs at Fort Lawton and an Italian POW is lynched on August 14, 1944 (Essay). HistoryLink.org. Retrieved on 2007-10-28.
- Martin, Jonathan (October 26, 2007). U.S. Army overturns convictions of Fort Lawton soldiers court-martialed in 1944 after riot, lynching (Newspaper article). Seattle Times. Retrieved on 2007-10-28.
- Yardley, William (October 26, 2007). 1944 Conviction of Black G.I.’s Is Ruled Flawed (Newspaper article). New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-10-28.
- Yardley, William (December 1, 2007). Army Pays $725 in Set-Aside World War II Case (Newspaper article). New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-12-02.
- Ortega, Tony (April 22, 2008). A Staten Island Trombonist Breaks a 64-Year Silence About a Military Race Riot (Newspaper article). Village Voice. Retrieved on 2008-4-23.
