Black WWII vets exonerated at Fort Lawton
0:26 a.m., Jul. 27
By LINDA BRILL / KING 5 News
KING5
updated 12:15 p.m. PT, Sat., July. 26, 2008
SEATTLE - Sixty-four years after black soldiers were wrongly court-martialed at Seattle's Fort Lawton, the U.S. Army apologized Saturday.
Honor was restored for 43 African American soldiers who were unjustly accused and 28 who were unjustly convicted in the largest U.S. Army court martial of World War II.
At a ceremony at Fort Lawton, the Army admitted that prosecutor misconduct led to an unfair trial and a miscarriage of justice.
"The Army is genuinely sorry. I am sorry," said Ronald James, Assistant Secretary to the U.S. Army. "I'm sorry your family members, your husbands, your fathers, your grandfathers, and loved ones lost years of their freedom."
It began in the summer of 1944 with the lynching death of POW Guglielmo Olivotto.
Fort Lawton was packed with Italian prisoners of war. The African American soldiers were consigned mostly to heavy-lifting in the segregated army at the time.
After a violent night of rioting and the death of Olivotto, 28 black soldiers were convicted of rioting and three were convicted of manslaughter.
"For the only time in American history then and now, black soldiers were accused of lynching of all things?" said Jack Hamann, former KING 5 News reporter.
He brought the injustice to light.
He traced the court martial errors to the young, ambitious army prosecutor Leon Jaworski, later of Watergate fame.
In his book, "On American Soil," Hamann found Jaworski withheld evidence that could have cleared the black soldiers.
On Saturday, family members of the wrongly convicted soldiers gathered to begin healing.
The son of the only living convicted soldier, Private Samuel Snow, spoke about moving on.
"There's nothing wrong with forgiveness," Ray Snow said. "That's where my dad stands, he stands in forgiveness."
Samuel Snow, now in his 80s, came all the way from Florida to attend the ceremony, but became ill Friday night and was not well enough to attend the event.
The men received honorable discharges and were given back pay.
Well, in this instance, the Army was correct to clear the record and give these men their public apology.
It was the right thing to do.
