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The Brownsville Affair

Map of Texas indicating Brownsville

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2. Dorsie Willis, 1974 Minneapolis: It was a smiling 87-year-old Dorsie Willis that talked to reporters, 1/10, after he received a check for $25,000 from the U.S. Government for being the sole survivor of the Brownsville Massacre. In 1906, Willis and 166 other black soldiers were dishonorably discharged from the Army following a racial incident. Early last year the secretary of the Army ordered all of the discharges changed to honorable. 'I'm very grateful (for the check),' said Willis. 'It's a great birthday present. But it comes too many years too late.'
3. 25th Infantry at Fort Missoula, circa 1900
4. Buffalo soldiers of the 25th Infantry, some wearing buffalo robes, Ft. Keogh, Montana
5. Chaplain T. G. Steward
9. Senator Joseph Foraker, 1908 Senator Foraker was primarily a friend to big businesses, and a supporter of de-regulation and laissez faire economics. However, he insisted to his death that his championing of the Brownsville soldiers, although prompted by political interests, was a fight to see justice done. His continued efforts to reverse the President’s decision, long after his allies in congress had abandoned him, supports his words.
10. 25th Infantry Bicycle corps, 1896
14. Sergeant Mingo Sanders, Fort Missoula, 1895
20. Springfield 1903 rifle

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Brownsville, Texas Fort Brown was built in 1846, and the town of Brownsville was founded two years later. Both city and fort sit on the Texas Mexico border, and since its founding Brownsville has been home to both Mexican and Anglo settlers.

At the dawn of the 20th century, Brownsville boasted around 7,000 inhabitants. It was the seat of Cameron County, and a railroad line from Corpus Christi to Houston connected Brownsville’s people to the metropolitan centers of the day. The local newspaper enjoyed a robust following, and the town’s mostly Mexican police force had recently been reformed and issued uniforms, in blue for winter and in khaki for summer.

The town citizens considered themselves quite racially tolerant, although the town’s small Black population was strictly forbidden from drinking at any of the three bars run by the White residents, and most of the Mexican population worked menial jobs and lived in poverty on the outskirts of town. However, when word came that Fort Brown was to be manned by 3 companies of Black soldiers, Anglo and Mexican townsfolk alike reacted with horror, anger, and a deep seated desire to run the soldiers out of town at the slightest provocation.

Companies B and C of the 25th Infantry rode into Fort Brown on July 28th, 1906. The third company, Company A was set to join them soon. Their commanding officer, Major Charles Penrose, wrote about their arrival:
People were standing along the streets, but there were no smiling faces or anything of that kind, as you might imagine when you are coming to a new post a little hand clapping or a little cheering sometimes. There was nothing like that.

At their new posting, the soldiers were subject to repeated indignities, from being refused service at the town’s White owned businesses to one soldier, Private James Newton, being pistol whipped by a White customs inspector for not stepping off the sidewalk into the street when passing a group of White women. Despite these provocations, the soldiers caused significantly less trouble in town than had the White regiment that preceded them. When payday came and the soldiers packed the Mexican run bars, even Brownsville’s mayor and police chief were forced to admit that it was the quietist, most orderly payday they had ever witnessed. Not a single fight broke out, and no arrests were made.