Law Library-- The Fort Lawton Riots: History We Were Never Supposed to Know
Guest Column
By Hazel Engstrom, Reporter for the Ballard High School Talisman
In a sprawling wooded grove, nestled between Discovery Park and Magnolia is the Fort Lawton Post Cemetery. Founded in 1909, the cemetery was an addition to Fort Lawton itself, an artillery center and defense base intended to defend Seattle and the Puget Sound coast from naval attack. Beyond its rows of orderly white headstones, a stately grave stands alone at the perimeter of the cemetery, a wide white pillar surrounded by metal fencing. It reads, Sold. Ital. Olivotto. The solitary grave is one of the only remnants of the largest court martial in United States history, the final resting place of Guglielmo Olivotto, an Italian prisoner of war lynched during a riot that occurred at the Fort Lawton Barracks in the summer of 1944. The murder of Olivotto resulted in the trial of 43 Black soldiers stationed at the fort, and the conviction of 28 of them, a story that took news cycles by storm as hearsay accounts of what happened that fateful night spread throughout Seattle and nationwide.1 A white man had been lynched, and Americans wanted answers. The violent altercation that occurred at Fort Lawton between Black Soldiers, white Military police, and Italian prisoners of war was the simultaneous product of racial segregation and nationalist fervor, exemplifying the larger societal belief that Black Americans were subordinate to even their war time enemies.
In 1909, the 25th infantry, also known as the Buffalo infantry, made up of 900 Black soldiers, was transported to Fort Lawton from the Philippines, bringing with them their families, and settling in the Magnolia neighborhood near the Fort. While Seattle’s black population was still relatively small during this time, it had established its own churches, fraternal organizations, and political chapters of the NAACP, the Universal Negro Improvement Association, and the National Negro Congress. However, as more Black Americans were drawn to the growing opportunities and industries of Seattle, they were met with hostility from white Seattleites who were fearful that an increased Black presence would rob them of their jobs and “contaminate” their communities. 2 Some of the more affluent Black families bought homes and found work above menial labor, yet a majority were consigned to working for low pay, often unprotected from labor law violations, as many of the major unions in the Pacific Northwest were segregated. As a result, when the General Strike of 1919 took place in Seattle following WWI, Black laborers acted as strikebreakers, taking on the available work that they would have otherwise been restricted from.3 Members of these striking unions grew resentful of the laborers filling their positions, and consequently Black Seattleites saw even greater hostility from both society and the law.
As America grew closer to securing the last theater of WWII in the Pacific, Black soldiers at Fort Lawton found themselves on a decisive front of their own battle. As the war progressed, Fort Lawton evolved to become a training base and supply station for the Pacific. It relied heavily on the labor of its segregated Port Companies of the Transportation Corps who worked on the docks, loaded supplies, and performed maintenance for the base. Along with the with the segregated Port Companies of the Transportation Corps, Italian prisoners of war were also able to hold maintenance positions, yet unlike their Black counterparts, the Italians could attend supervised visits to the movies, and even go on dates with the local high school girls.4 On the night of August 14th, 1944, on the way home from one of these outings, an altercation between Black soldiers and Italian POWs occurred. While the details of the initial interaction are unclear, it was shortly thereafter that the riots began. According to military police witnesses, Black soldiers allegedly stormed the Italian barracks, beating and stabbing prisoners. While the military police eventually broke up the confrontation, it wasn’t until the next morning that the body of Olivotto was found, hanging from the metal wires of a training course.5
Once the gravity of the situation was realized, the Black participants in the conflict were detained. Throughout the riot’s aftermath there were errors in collecting and preserving evidence that might have pointed to a different version of events rather than the military police narrative. Namely, the weapons seized from the soldiers were collected in a haphazard pile, without any indication of whose they were. Despite the damages to the Barracks, the Italian quarters were hastily repaired and painted within the next day, and no fingerprints were ever collected from the scene.6 Further, eyewitness reports grew increasingly convoluted as white military police were unable to even identify the men they saw rioting, claiming “they all looked the same.”7 However, a detained Black soldier wrote his own account of what had happened in a letter to a friend. He explained that the white military police had harassed the Italians and encouraged the Black soldiers to join in. He claimed that it was, in fact, the white MP’s who harbored resentment towards the Italians. Even more so than the Black soldiers. Along with this letter, there was also a report of at least one white MP hitting an Italian with his baton. Despite these discrepancies between witness accounts and known facts, the Black soldiers accused of rioting were jailed in the stockades until a determination could be made of their guilt.8
It was decided in the fall of 1944 that the Black soldiers would be tried in military court. Two lawyers were given ten days to create a defense for all 43 men, who, if convicted, would face a maximum life sentence. Knowing that the men were almost certain to be punished to some degree, the defense focused their efforts on avoiding life sentences for the defendants. The all-white military court martial jury met on November 16th, 1944, and the trial proceeded for the next week. By November 23rd, the hearings concluded. After five weeks, twenty-eight of the men were convicted, two of them for manslaughter. All but one of the soldiers were dishonorably discharged and forced to surrender their uniforms.9 By 1945, the frenzy that had originally surrounded the lynching dissipated. In the court of public opinion and in the eyes of the law, the men who had murdered Olivotto had been found guilty. Justice had been served and the celebrations of allied victory in WWII eclipsed both the lynching and the trial. The story became yet another episode that America was more than happy to relegate to its past.
It wasn’t testimony from one of the convicted soldiers that reopened investigation into Fort Lawton, nor was it the request of a spouse, or a descendant of one of the soldiers. Instead, it was the secluded grave of Guglielmo Olivotto, that drew the attention of investigative journalist James Hamann in 1986. Curious about the Italian headstone in a Seattle cemetery, Hamann and his wife Leslie spent the next two decades researching and writing On American Soil: How Justice Became a Casualty of World War II, a book that examines the events of the Fort Lawton riot and trial. It was the Hamanns who delved into the problems that plagued the trial from the outset, bringing to light the mistakes made by prosecutor Leon Jaworski during the court martial.10 Jaworski withheld exculpatory evidence, including a report from the defense that would have discredited many of his witnesses.11 After reading the Hamanns’ book and vetting the evidence, Representatives Jim McDermot (D-WA) and Duncan Hunter (R-CA) presented their findings to the Army Board of Review. The Board of Review dismissed the convictions in 2007. In 2008, President George W. Bush signed legislation granting the army the ability to “disburse back pay to the defendants or their survivors.”12 But even this was a bitter consolation. The reparations were for the amount of backpay owed at the time of conviction. There was no adjustment for interest or inflation. Cashing the check would forfeit any right to appeal for more just compensation.13
Samuel Snow and Roy Montgomery were the two last known living defendants of the Fort Lawton trial. In the summer of 2008, Army officials organized a military tribute for Snow and Montgomery at Fort Lawton, officially honorably discharging them and celebrating with their descendants. Samuel Snow traveled to Seattle for the tribute but fell ill before he could make it to the ceremony. He was taken to the hospital. Just 12 hours after he was honorably discharged, he passed away from heart failure at the age of 83. It had taken 64 years for Samuel Snow to see justice for only half a day. Not wanting to lose his right to appeal, he never cashed his $725 check.14
The true story of the Fort Lawton riot, a defining moment of Seattle’s history, was almost lost except for the curiosity of a passerby. Like the Tulsa race massacre, how does a collective lapse in memory of an event that profoundly impacted the lives of so many occur? The lynching of Guglielmo Olivotto serves as a microcosm for the racial tensions present during 20th century America, yet also cements how the ideologies of nationalism perpetuated by America’s involvement in WWII drowned out the stories of the “perpetrators” within the dominant narrative. In my examination of the Fort Lawton riots, it is all too easy to see how failure to acknowledge uncomfortable truths of our history in full can cause it to be repeated. The late reparations and acknowledgement given to Black soldiers like Samuel Snow and Roy Montgomery were only because of a white man’s grave. It’s hard to fathom the countless other stories of Black Americans lynched in America because they weren’t even offered the dignity of a headstone.
For Further Discussion on This Topic (with potential CLE credit):
The Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society presented a CLE on the topic featuring Jack and Leslie Hamann, the journalists who researched the Fort Lawton riots and brought this important episode of Seattle history back to the forefront. You can view the CLE, Commemorate Black History Month with Extraordinary Stories You Might Have Missed: On American Soil: How Justice Became a Casualty of World War II, here https://www.njchs.org/on-american-soil-how-justice-became-a-casualty-of-world-war-ii/.
1 “More than 50 Soldiers in Riot.” The Seattle Times, 18 August 1944. https://historylink.org/File/7378.
2 Taylor, Quintard. “The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle’s Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era”. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2009: pages 50-52, Taylor, 55-57.
3 Id at 58.
4 McNerthney, Casey, “The Almost -Forgotten Seattle Story that May Inspire a Movie” Seattle Post Intelligencer (Aug 20 2011) https://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/The-almost-forgotten-Seattle-
story-that-may-2115203.php.
5 MacIntosh Heather, Long Priscilla, and Wilma David, Riots Involving African American Soldiers Occurs at Fort Lawton and an Italian POW is Lynched on August 14, 1944. History Link (July 6, 2004) https://www.historylink.org/File/7378.
6 Id.
7 Long, Priscilla. “Fort Lawton (Seattle) “Riot” and POW Lynching, 1944.” Black Past, University of Washington. 30 Jan. 2009.
8 Hamann, Jack. “On American Soil: How Justice Became a Casualty of World War II.” Seattle: Algonquin Books, 2005.
9 Yardley, William “1944 Conviction of Black G.I.’s is Ruled Flawed” New York Times (Oct 27, 2007).
10 Leon Jaworski later found fame as the Watergate special prosecutor.
11 Andrea Seabrook, Black Soldiers Exonerated in WWII Lynching Incident, All Things Considered NPR (Dec 2, 2007).
12 Fort Lawton Soldiers Get Back Pay, Seattle Times (Oct 15, 2008).
13 William Yardley. “Wrongfully convicted World War vet dies after apology.” The New York Times, The New York Times Company. 30 July 2008. Web. 14 June 2024.
14 Id.
