Tribute to the Veterans of the 1944 Court-Martial

On August 14, 1944, an Italian prisoner of war named Guglielmo Olivotto was lynched at the base of the Magnolia bluffs in Seattle's Fort Lawton. The murder followed a violent nighttime confrontation between members of three all-black U.S. Army port companies and a company of prisoners in an adjacent Italian Service Unit, a clash inflamed by the participation of one or more white U.S. Army military policemen.

Forty-three African-American soldiers were charged with rioting; three also were charged with first-degree murder. After worldwide publicity and the longest and largest Army court-martial of World War II, 28 soldiers were convicted of rioting and rioting; two soldiers also were found guilty of manslaughter. The event remains the only criminal trial in U.S.history where black men were found guilty of lynching. The arrests, prosecutions, convictions, incarcerations and dishonorable discharges haunted the defendants and their families for the next six decades.

On October 26, 2007, the U.S. Army's highest Court of Appeal ruled that the Fort Lawton court-martial had been fundamentally unfair, paving the way for the reversal of all 28 convictions. Acting at the behest of U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, and citing the research from the book On American Soil by Seattle journalists Jack & Leslie Hamann, the Appeals Court found that Army prosecutor Leon Jaworski committed an egregious error in his decision to withhold exculpatory evidence that likely would have cleared most of the soldiers and exposed Olivotto's true killer. Learn more...

For more information on the Tribute to the Veterans of the 1944 Courts-Martial, call (206) 296 0312 or visit http://www.jackhamann.com/tribute_planning.html.

Sponsored by: King County/The Offices of Councilmember Larry Gossett and King County Executive Ron Sims, City of Seattle, US Army, (Featuring) Congressman Jim McDermott, Seattle University, Eli Lilly, Lane Powell, Tabor 100, NAACP, Northwest African American Museum, Federal Bar Association, Ezell's, Talking Rain, Rotary International, Seafair, and Jack Hamann - author of On American Soil.

Thursday, July 24th - Seattle University, 901 12th Avenue, Seattle 98122
5 PM Discussion: Race, Justice and the Military, Pigott Building
7:30 PM Mass in memory of Guglielmo Olivottto, Chapel of St. Ignatius
Driving directions and a campus map

Saturday, July 26th - Discovery Park, 3801 W Government Way, Seattle, WA 98199
10 AM Ceremony Restoring Honor to the Ft. Lawton Veterans
12 PM-2PM Community Picnic
Driving directions and bus information to Discovery Park

Metro will provide increased bus service for the #24 route that runs from downtown to Discovery Park. The #24 has a stop at the South Entrance of the Park on Emerson Street. Signs at the park will direct you to the Tribute.