World War I and Houston
In June 1914, Europe was plunged into World War I. The United States formally entered the conflict three years later. The war was fought in Europe, but life on the home front also changed dramatically.
In Houston, underlying racial tensions erupted in violence on August 23, 1917 with the Camp Logan Riot. Local police had repeatedly harassed and abused African-American soldiers stationed at Camp Logan just outside of Houston. White police officers and other city workers failed to show the black soldiers respect, fearing local black citizens would demand the same regard. “During the summer of 1917 the number of incidents involving police brutality reached frightening proportions.”1 Tensions simmered for weeks, but the arrest of a black corporal who had defended an African-American woman against the police sparked the riot. During the riot nineteen people died; another 15 were wounded. After the riot, nineteen supposedly mutinous soldiers were court-martialed, sentenced to death, and hanged. Another 63 black soldiers received life sentences. No white civilians were tried. African Americans at the time and historians in the following decades considered the convictions unjustifiable.
One year later the entire nation became embroiled in a different worldwide drama. A strain of influenza, or flu, called Spanish Influenza made its way across the globe infecting hundreds of millions and killing some thirty million worldwide. In the United States, complications of Spanish Influenza led to an estimated 675,000 deaths. The flu first hit the United States at Camp Devens near Boston in August 1918. Houston experienced the first wave of the flu in early October. Schools, theaters, and churches temporarily closed in an effort to stifle the spread of the disease. Some 34,000 Houstonians succumbed to the illness in the first wave. It is unknown how many died in the subsequent waves. The disease often spread most quickly and proved deadliest among people between the ages of 20 and 30, in part, because so many young men had joined the military. Due to the close quarters, the army was not always able “to prevent the spread of communicable diseases.” Members of the armed forces suffered disproportionately high incidences of disease.
Houstonians participated in the war effort on many fronts. Among them, Dr. George Washington Antoine served in the medical corps. African-American physician Dr. Benjamin Covington developed an influenza vaccine and the Army Medical Corps quickly secured his formula for the troops at the close of World War I. However, the many vaccines in use at the time proved particularly effective in halting the influenza.
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- Camp Logan Riot
Camp Logan began as a National Guard Camp located just outside of the city limits of Houston. With the U.S. entry into World War I, two army units were sent to Camp Logan, one white and one black. When they received passes to visit Houston, the African-American soldiers continually faced harassed from the city’s white citizens, streetcar conductors, and police officers. The tension continued to build until August 1917.
On August 23, 1917, the Houston Police Department (HPD) arrested Sara Travers, an African-American woman. Private Alonzo Edwards, an African-American soldier, tried to defend her and also was arrested. When Corporal Charles Baltimore arrived in Houston to inquire about the arrest of Private Edwards, HPD members assaulted and arrested him as well.
Rumors that the police had killed a black soldier quickly spread through the army camp. Later that same evening, a group of the African-American soldiers stationed at Camp Logan collected arms and marched into Houston. Throughout the night shots were fired as police came out to subdue these troops. By the morning, fifteen whites were dead, including four policemen. Four black soldiers were killed.
African-American soldiers involved in the march faced court martial. The military tribunals found 110 men guilty of mutiny for participating in the riot. Because it was wartime, the punishments were severe. Nineteen men were hung and another sixty three received life sentences.
No white civilians ever faced trial for their abuse of the black soldiers.
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- Spanish Influenza
In 1918 the world experienced an influenza pandemic that killed between 20 and 40 million people across the globe. A pandemic is an epidemic that reaches over a wide geographic area and affects a large populace. World War I did not cause the influenza, but the movement of troops and other disruptions caused by the war quickened its spread.
Usually referred to as flu, influenza is a highly infectious respiratory disease caused by a virus. Flu is often a mild, albeit unpleasant disease; however when secondary infections occur, such as pneumonia, influenza can be deadly.
In 1918, the variation of influenza known as the Spanish flu caused a high fever, headaches, joint aches, coughing, a drippy nose, and a sore throat. Within a few days complications arose causing nosebleeds, pneumonia, or other potentially deadly infections. With their breathing obstructed, some patients became cyanotic, meaning their skim developed a bluish tint, and many died. When doctors performed autopsies they found that hemorrhaging (excessive bleeding) filled the victims’ lungs with a thin bloody fluid. The victims effected “drowned” in this fluid.
The flu was first observed at Fort Riley in Kansas in spring 1918, although its potential scope and seriousness were not then appreciated. American troops transported to Europe to fight in World War I probably brought the flu with them. Within four months the disease crossed Europe making it a pandemic. It reached across Asia and Africa within months.
The flu soon returned to the United States in September 1918, first appearing at Camp Devens, an army base near Boston. By the end of the month, it infected thousands. The disease spread quickly, moving from port cities in the East to railroad hubs and along the Great Lakes in the Midwest, and across the country to the west coast.
The flue arrived in the city of Houston and the nearby army base, Camp Logan, in October. Camp Logan established quarantine to separate the infected from the healthy and requested more nurses to care of the sick. The disease made its way into the city, causing schools and public places to close for several weeks. An estimated 34,000 people died in October 1918 in the Houston region; there are no figures regarding subsequent waves of the flu.
Many victims were between the age 25 and 35 years old, although influenza epidemics traditionally affected juvenile, elderly, or otherwise weakened patients rather than healthy adults. The flu lasted into the winter and spring of 1919. Subsequent studies have tried to determine the origin of the disease, the reason it was so virulent, and the reason it affected young adults in such high numbers. Examples can be found on the Emerging Infectious Diseases page of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
Some estimates suggest that the Spanish Influenza infected 28 percent of all Americans, while some 675,000 succumbed to the disease. The flu killed an estimated 43,000 servicemen.
While the name “Spanish Influenza” suggested the disease originated in Spain, the moniker is more likely the result of wartime politics. Spanish cities, such as Madrid and Seville, experienced outbreaks in May 1918. However, because Spain was a neutral nation during World War I, its press was not subject to the wartime censorship. Thus, in Spain, unlike other nations, the full scope of the disaster was reported, giving some commentators the mistaken impression that the disease began there.
Citations
- Robert V. Hayes, A Night of Violence: The Houston Riot of 1917 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1976)
