The Brownsville incident of 1906 represents one of the most egregious examples of mass punishment in United States History. At Midnight, August 13, 1906. Unidentified bandits viciously raid the town of Brownsville, Texas, where the First Battalion, 25th Infantry of the United States Army, a unit of 167 black men, is stationed at Fort Brown. The raiders unleash a 10-minute barrage of bullets that kills a young bartender, wounds a police lieutenant, breaks windows, studs the sides of houses, fells a horse out from under its rider, and causes widespread panic among the white townspeople. President Theodore Roosevelt charged that all 167 Black soldiers were responsible for the carnage. The soldiers, members of a segregated battalion, proclaimed their innocence. Despite evidence that the shells had been planted, investigators accepted their account. So, too, did President Theodore Roosevelt, who discharged all 167 members of the unit—without honor, due process, or trial—saying they’d engaged in a “conspiracy of silence” by refusing to confess or incriminate fellow soldiers. Lieutenant Colonel (Ret) William Baker tells the story of his quest to unearth the evidence that would eventually exonerate the falsely accused men and give them the justice that had eluded them for almost seven decades.

Posthumously published with a foreword by the Colonel’s wife of fifty-nine years, Dr. Bettye Foster Baker, The Brownsville Redemption is a story of racism, determination, and, ultimately, justice achieved.