FMS Prof. Willmott salutes Army’s reckoning of injustice faced by WWI-era Black soldiers
TOPEKA — Academy Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker Kevin Willmott welcomed the U.S. Army’s decision to set aside courts-martial convictions of 110 Black soldiers, including 19 executed for involvement in World War I-era race rioting in Houston.
Willmott, a professor of film at University of Kansas, released “The 24th” in 2020 to shed light on injustices that precipitated the uprising in 1917 and triggered military prosecution of the soldiers.
He directed the movie and worked on the script for about 20 years. The project was finished amid aftermath of the killing of George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer who restained the Black man for allegedly passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a store. Floyd grew up in Houston.
“I was hoping it showed what they went through — to put a human face on the guys,” Willmott said. “The movie clearly educated people.”
In mid-November, Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth approved a recommendation to overturn convictions of Black soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment.
The decision endorsed by the Army Board for Correction of Military Records meant the Buffalo Soldiers would have their military records corrected to document honorable service in the Army. The soldiers’ gravestones could be replaced by markers listing their service in the Spanish-American and Phillippine-American wars. Relatives of the soldiers may be entitled to benefits through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.