"The 24th," a film about the 1917 Houston riots in which black soldiers confronted Jim Crow-era racism and Houston law enforcement, has a new trailer out ahead of an August debut.
The trailer, released Aug. 5, opens with soldiers in formation at the site of Camp Logan, a World War I-era training camp that was then located in the outskirts of Houston. Today, it largely falls within Memorial Park.
The film's title is a nod to the 24th Infantry, an all-black unit that was assigned to guard the construction of the camp, according to a Houston Heritage Society account of the history.
The film centers around the events of Aug. 23, 1917, a violent race riot set off by rumors that a black soldier had been killed by Houston police officers. When the dust settled, four soldiers, five police officers and 11 others had died, according to the Heritage society. It subsequently resulted in the largest murder trial and court martial in U.S. history, with nearly 10 soldiers put to death and more than 60 others sentenced to life imprisonment, despite limited evidence that all of the soldiers participated, according to historians.
