United States Senate Committee on Claims, Earle Bradford Mayfield, and United States Senate. Claims growing out of Houston Riot. February 3, 1925 — Ordered to be printed. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1925. https://www.loc.gov/item/2024782384/.
There are 26 items in this series from the US Senate (the 68th Congress). Have small groups of students read each page and ask questions about the information there, paying close attention to keep paragraphs together from page to page.
The Houston Race Riot of 1917 occurred when a Black regiment from Illinois stationed at Camp Logan was ordered to stand guard during construction. Camp Logan was located northwest of modern-day Houston.
Source: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/houston-riot-of-1917
- Why is there a difference of $250 and $2500?
- What event is this legal paper discussing?
- What governing body is overseeing these claims?
- What do they mean by “claims”?
ELA Standard
7.6B. Write responses that demonstrate understanding of texts, including comparing sources within and across genres.
Social Studies Standard
7.19A. Differentiate between, locate, and use valid primary and secondary sources such as technology; interviews; biographies; oral, print, and visual material; documents; and artifacts to acquire information about Texas.
Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
- Begin this lesson with a read-aloud from Carol Boston Weatherford’s Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre. The first four double-page spreads set up the frontier town of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ask students to make comparisons to the city of Houston in 1917. How are they similar? How are they different?
- Next, ask students to do a quick internet search for the following terms/places:
- Camp Logan (Texas)
- Ellington Field (Texas)
- World War I
- United States Infantry
- Segregation
- Compare information across groups and create a gallery walk of the information to share with the whole class. Have students walk around to get context for the primary source they are about to read.
- Pass out the one page of the primary source from the Library of Congress and pair it with the front page of The Houston Press on the day after the riot. What new information do students now have? What else does it make them wonder?
- Finish reading Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre and make connections between the two events.
- Who was involved?
- Why did each event happen?
- What does the author of the children’s book do that the Congress/Senate report does not?
- How would an author go about researching historical events like this?
- Have students locate another historical children’s book and research the story behind the fictional telling of that event.
Note. Page 1 of this source below details how some members of the 24th Infantry are still imprisoned (in 1923) in Leavenworth, Kansas, for their role in the Houston Race Riot.
The Appeal (Saint Paul, Minn. ; Minneapolis, Minn. ; Chicago, Ill.), October 20, 1923. 1923. Newspaper. Library of Congress Chronicling America. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83016810/1923-10-20/ed-1/.