‘America’s Black Dreyfus Affair,’ and the Long Battle to Right Teddy Roosevelt’s Wrong
167 Black Soldiers Were Dishonorably Discharged from the Army in 1906. Two Angelenos Corrected the Historical Record in the 1970s
As a youngster, John Downing Weaver paid little attention to his mother when she told him stories of her and his father’s trip to Brownsville, Texas, in 1909. It wasn’t until the journalist was in his 50s that he got around to asking her about it. After all, it didn’t sound like a glamorous trip.
“Some Negro soldiers shot up the town,” she said, “and Teddy Roosevelt kicked them out of the Army.” Weaver figured his father, a stenographer for the House of Representatives, had been tapped to cover a trial …
