Biography
Private James Divins was one of the thirteen soldiers of the all-Black 24th Infantry Regiment hanged at Camp Travis, near San Antonio, at dawn on 11 December 1917, after the first Houston-riot court-martial (the "Nesbit case"). The executions were carried out in secret, within a day of sentencing and without the War Department review that would normally have allowed an appeal. The Houston riot of 1917 (the Camp Logan mutiny) erupted on 23 August 1917 after Houston police, enforcing Jim Crow, beat and arrested soldiers of the all-Black 24th Infantry Regiment. About 150 soldiers marched on the city; the night left some twenty people dead. In the largest court-martial in U.S. history, 118 men were tried, 19 executed, and 63 sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2023 the U.S. Army set aside all 110 convictions and honorably discharged the soldiers.
