(Any other ethnic group would be retried. I'm amazed that the NY times admits there were POW camps in the USA. Did these Italians ever receive compensation? Did Mr. Olivotto's family receive an apology because somebody lynched this Italian at that POW camp. Congressman Jim McDermott is an idiot for not investigating further. I'm totally disgusted!)


1944 Conviction of Black G.I.’s Is Ruled Flawed (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/27/us/27punish.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin)

National Archives, left, and Chris Livingston for The New York Times

SEATTLE, Oct. 26 — Guglielmo Olivotto, an Italian prisoner of war, died with a noose around his neck, lynched at a military post on Puget Sound 63 years ago. Samuel Snow, 83, hopes that people will stop blaming him and the 27 other black soldiers convicted of starting the riot that led to Mr. Olivotto’s death. It was one of the largest Army courts-martial of World War II.

This week, a review board issued a ruling that could lead to overturning the convictions of all 28 soldiers, granting honorable discharges and providing them with back pay.

The board found that the court-martial was flawed, that the defense was unjustly rushed and that the prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, a young lieutenant colonel who went on to fame three decades later as a Watergate special prosecutor, had important evidence that he did not share with defense lawyers.

All of the 28 have died except for Mr. Snow and another soldier.

“It means a lot to me that it’s going to come out in the paper,” Mr. Snow said Friday from his home in Leesburg, Fla. “Now people are going to see that I wasn’t a villain. And I’m not a villain.”

Mr. Snow’s son Ray, 55, said his father came home from prison “highly disappointed.”

“He walked with it all his life,” Ray Snow said.

Samuel Snow, who said he spent 45 years working as a janitor in Leesburg after serving one year in a military prison for his conviction on the rioting charge, requested the review, as did the families of three of the dead soldiers, Pvt. Booker M. Townsell, Pvt. William G. Jones and Cpl. Luther L. Larkin. Private Jones and Corporal Larkin were also convicted of manslaughter.

United States Representative Jim McDermott, a Democrat whose Seattle district includes Fort Lawton, where the riot occurred, said a senior military officer in charge of the review told him that the convictions of all four men would be overturned.

The ruling, by the Army’s Board for Correction of Military Records, specifically set aside the conviction of Private Townsell, and an Army spokesman said Friday that he could confirm only that the one conviction had been overturned.

Last year, the House, led by Mr. McDermott and Representative Duncan Hunter, Republican of California, passed a measure directing the Army to open the review after the 2005 publication of a book, “On American Soil,” by a Seattle author and journalist, Jack Hamann. The book detailed evidence from the case that had not been made public.

Mr. McDermott has suggested that the convicted soldiers were “victims of racial injustice.”

The case could be the largest Army court-martial of World War II. The largest court-martial of the war is thought to be that of 50 black sailors who were convicted of mutiny and sentenced to 15 years in prison for refusing to load ammunition aboard a ship at Port Chicago, a Navy depot 30 miles northeast of San Francisco.

The 28 soldiers in the Puget Sound case were stationed at Fort Lawton on Aug. 15, 1944, when Mr. Olivotto was found dead after a night of fighting among American and Italian soldiers on the base. Some American soldiers — white and black — objected to what they saw as lenient treatment of the scores of Italian prisoners held there.

The 28 black soldiers were among 43 initially charged with rioting, but charges were dropped against 2 of the 43 and the other 13 were acquitted.

Two defense lawyers, representing all 43 initially charged, had 13 days to prepare for trial. According to the board’s ruling, they did not have full access to a confidential Army inspector general’s report that Mr. Jaworski had seen, which suggested that evidence at the scene had been destroyed, and that white military policemen with animosity toward the Italians may have played a role in the riot.

“Under military law as it stands today, people would laugh,” said John Tait, an Army lawyer who reviewed the case for the board. “You don’t have two people represent 43 people. It just doesn’t happen. And when three people are charged with murder? No.”

The board’s decision instructs the Army to set aside Mr. Townsell’s conviction, and to change his dishonorable discharge to honorable, making his family eligible to receive back pay. Members of his family did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.

The analysis used by the board in reaching its decision about Mr. Townsell would apply “to anybody who was convicted in that court-martial,” Mr. Tait said.

Soldiers or their families must request that their case be reviewed. Mr. Townsell’s family requested the review after hearing Mr. Hamann discuss the case in a radio interview.

Mr. Hamann, a former reporter for CNN, said he struggled to locate many of the families during his research, which he conducted with the help of his wife, Leslie.

“There are still a lot of families out there that have never heard about this,” he said. “They’re all over the United States.”

It was not immediately clear what kind of back pay or benefits the soldiers or their families might receive. The ruling says Mr. Townsell or his estate should receive “all back pay and allowances due as a result of the above corrections.”

Col. Dan Baggio, chief of media relations for the Army, said late Friday: “I’m not really sure how much that is going to amount to. I’m sure there are folks who are going to look at what is the right and equitable thing to do.”

The ruling does not say that the convicted soldiers were not guilty, but that the process by which they were convicted was unjust.

The ruling notes that white military police were lax in quelling the riot. And it suggests that Mr. Jaworski, who died in 1982, would have been aware of testimony, which he did not share with the defense, that suggested a white military policeman could have been involved in the Olivotto killing.

One black soldier had told an investigator that a white military policeman had threatened to “bust” the skull of an Italian soldier.

In his book, Mr. Hamann said the evidence pointed to a white military policeman who had been present at every critical moment in the days leading up to the lynching, and who discovered Mr. Olivotto’s body. The policeman, who is deceased, was convicted of going absent without leave.

As a veteran and african american, one who see what you said as bias and offending but I'm going to take the high road. You may not know this, Hopefully this may enlighten you:

Today, the U.S. Army is among America's most successfully integrated institutions, with black officers at the highest level. But in 1944, racism in the Army was astonishingly crude, government-sanctioned policy.

``The military had become an extension of the Southern political system because of its close ties to Southern congressmen who controlled military appropriations, and because a large number of the senior white officers in the Army were Southerners,'' former 92nd Infantry Capt. Dennette A. Harrod Sr. recalled in a 1992 speech at the U.S. Army War College.

If black soldiers were wounded in action and required emergency blood transfusions, only the plasma of other black soldiers could be used to save their lives.

The segregated units in which the majority of black enlistees served were commanded by whites, many of whom regarded their men with contempt and limited them to duty as gravediggers or mess hall workers.

When a massive German assault was launched on this windswept mountain village of Sommocolonia, Italy in December 1944, a scant two platoons of african American infantrymen were dug in here. Their own commanding officers expected them to throw down their guns and run.

But for 20 critical hours, the tiny complement of 70 GIs -- all of them black, from the U.S. Army's segregated 92nd Infantry Division -- held out against an offensive that might have changed the course of World War II. Six miles to the south was the command post of the American Fifth Army, which refused to provide either reinforcements for the besieged troops in Sommocolonia or blood transfusions for their wounded. They were black, and by official U.S. Army standards in World War II, not fully soldiers.

``In those days, if you were not white, you had to fight on two fronts at once,'' says former Maj. Otis Zachary of Carson (Los Angeles County) a veteran of the battle. ``One against the Nazis, and another against the mentality of your own superiors.''


Now let's fast forward His family should get something but it was war. Can you imagine if everbody who got killed by mistake got money for a loved one? hell beruit would be rich!! It was war and your enemy was the white southern americans who made movies with japanese people as stupid and italians as gangsters or BAD ACCENT pizza makers. stereotypes ARE SICKNING. they raped your women laughed at you and still say they saved you. If you want to find the real killer came from the south alright but he was white and wanted to blame the blacks. Blacks weren't your enemy. take a look at the white army private who got 110 years for being one of 4 people who raped a 14 year old iraqi girl and then killed her and her family with the gun they kept in thier house for protection. the fact is that the blacks convicted were screwed over and lied on and opressed just like you. So To those black soldiers what you should be saying is thank you. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER GET SOME!!

I think this thread fits in perfect here.

Somebody on another thread wrote the following. I answered it below. (racism)

Razism: Different culture / races mix better in the US … I think… I do not believe: that Italian are racists but until a few years ago Italy had virtually no other cultures. Today lots of immigrants come with no money and no prospect and they turn to crime to survive… anyway this maybe too long a subject…I will postpone it.

The races mix better in the U.S. You got me rolling on the floor with laughter! The U.S. has traditionally been the most racist country in the entire world. They say that South Africa got many of their racist policies from the U.S. For years the U.S. had very strict laws against mixed marriage. In California alone there were laws on record againt Chinese, blacks and other minorities marrying whites. That's just in California. Now imagine in the South of The United States where racism has traditionally been entrenched and realativly much worse than anywhere else in the U.S. Hanging Blacks or lynching was as common as apple pie. A black person could be killed just for being accused of looking at a White woman. Don't think there was much mixing going on there not by marriage anyway! The police would routinely stop Black people and just beat the hell out of them or kill them for nothing.(Wait! That's still going on!) You could run a Black person down with a car and he would be blamed for not getting out of the way. If a Black person was injured white hospitals would not take them in. Now you think a white person would be mixing with Blacks. By the way they also lynched Italians and burned Catholic churches. One Jew was lynched for murder even though he was innocent.

(New York use to have signs saying if you are Italian, Irish or German don't even bother to apply for a job here.) Point is there was racism againt everybody.

No dogs or Jews allowed! Have you seen the recent televison 3 part series on Jewish Americans? So much racism in the U.S.

No dogs or Mexicans allowed! This was a common sign you would see thoughout California, Texas, Colorado and the whole South Western United States. Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans and all Hispanics weren't allowed in movie theaters, swimming pools or anyother White places White went to including schools. (American Indians were treated even worse if this were possible!) (A Mexican friend of mine was married to a Cuban in the 50's. They would not rent to them in Whittier, Calif.) Not much mixing going on there either. They say there were more lynchings of Mexicans in Texas than there were of Blacks in the South. Mexicans and Hispanics in general would receive harsher sentencing for the same crimes Whites would commit. If a white woman was involved with minorities during a crime the minorites would receive more years in prison.

Have you ever seen the I Love Lucy Show? They told Lucy she could not do a show about her being married to a Cuban. She said but I am married to a Cuban! You just did not marry an Hispanic at that time. And it's not a whole lot different now!
In 1948, Ball was cast as Liz Cugat (later "Cooper"), a wacky wife, in My Favorite Husband, a radio program for CBS Radio. The program was successful, and CBS asked her to develop it for television. She agreed, but insisted on working with the Cuban Arnaz. CBS executives were reluctant, thinking the public would not accept an All-American redhead and a Cuban as a couple. CBS was initially not impressed with the pilot episode produced by the couple's Desilu Productions company, so the couple toured the road in a vaudeville act with Lucy as the zany housewife wanting to get in Arnaz's show. The tour was a smash, and CBS put I Love Lucy on their lineup.

Well, of course things are better now but not as much as you would think. I know I'm married to an Hispanic. Believe you me racism is still alive in the U.S. I know somebody will come on here and say things aren't that bad in the U.S. anymore etc. etc. But no doubt it will be somebody who is not married to a minority or is not a minority themselves and really just does not know what's going on. Have been a teacher for over 30 years working day and night in minority communities. I see what goes on. Things are better but not like people will try to tell you they are.

Go to Beverly Hills or anyother afluent place and see how many Blacks or other minorities are living there or mixing with White people or working in any of the schools or stores even. Go to any university and see how many Blacks, Hispanics and other minorities are enrolled and mixing. Ask a Black person how he is accepted on a beach in Malibu or Laguna or someother exclusive place. A Black friend of mine is the only Black set designer in Hollywood. Says racism is rampant in the industry. That's today 2008 were talking about not sometime in 1950's when Howard Griffin wrote the classic true story book "Black Like Me." Could go on and on about this.

Now let's take a look at Italy for racism as compared to the U.S.. Have you ever heard of Franco Harris? Franco Harris is a Black Italian all time great American pro running back. His mother was Italian and his father was a Black U.S. soldier during world world ll in Italy. The point is many U.S. Black soldiers were free with no problems to marry Italians when a Black person here in the U.S. was not even allowed to look at a White woman.

I lived in Italy for 2 years with 4 Black American room mates. We went out together all the time. My Black friends at that time(a long time ago)were treated like human beings by all the Italians we met. In fact they preferred them over White Americans. Had a good Mexican friend too in Italy. All the Italians treated him like a long lost brother. He spoke Italian and fitted in better than you can imagine. Now compare that to how Mexicans have been traditionally treated in the U.S.

I have often wondered why this was. For one thing you have to remember that the Roman Empire was the first truely molti-cultural society where people came from all over the world. So people got use to mixing and being around people from all over of different races.

That reminds me. The U.S. imposed strict immigration laws not allowing in people from countries that were not quote on quote White like the typical WASP.(White Anglo Saxson Protestant)

"Racism in the U.S. Army was astonishingly crude, government-sanctioned policy."

``"The military had become an extension of the Southern political system because of its close ties to Southern congressmen who controlled military appropriations, and because a large number of the senior white officers in the Army were Southerners,'' former 92nd Infantry Capt. Dennette A. Harrod Sr. recalled in a 1992 speech at the U.S. Army War College."

"If black soldiers were wounded in action and required emergency blood transfusions, only the plasma of other black soldiers could be used to save their lives."

"The segregated units in which the majority of black enlistees served were commanded by whites, many of whom regarded their men with contempt and limited them to duty as gravediggers or mess hall workers."

"When a massive German assault was launched on this windswept mountain village of Sommocolonia, Italy in December 1944, a scant two platoons of african American infantrymen were dug in here. Their own commanding officers expected them to throw down their guns and run."

"But for 20 critical hours, the tiny complement of 70 GIs -- all of them black, from the U.S. Army's segregated 92nd Infantry Division -- held out against an offensive that might have changed the course of World War II. Six miles to the south was the command post of the American Fifth Army, which refused to provide either reinforcements for the besieged troops in Sommocolonia or blood transfusions for their wounded. They were black, and by official U.S. Army standards in World War II, not fully soldiers."