Beschreibung:

Lot of 2 items related to "The Brownsville Raid" or "The Brownsville Affair," including a printed postcard with the image of six men standing in a Brownsville, Texas, street and the caption "On the Right is the Cowan Residence Into Which Negro Raiders Fired Twenty Shots, Aug. 13th, 1906"; accompanied by a pinback button, 1.25 in., which features the center image of four black soldiers encircled by the words "Remember Brownsville" and the caption below "Discharged Without Honor." In the midst of deteriorating race relations throughout the state, an August 12-13, 1906, incident sparked a racial conflict in Brownsville, Texas, that would resonate throughout the country and all the way to the White House. Around midnight on August 12, shots rang out in the streets of Brownsville killing one townsperson and injuring two others. Residents of the town immediately accused black soldiers of the 25th Infantry stationed nearby at Fort Brown of perpetrating the crimes and firing the shots. Despite evidence to the contrary, local law enforcement and the Army's Inspector General placed the blame for the incident with the soldiers, ultimately resulting in President Theodore Roosevelt's decision to dishonorably discharge 167 of the black troops. Though many supported Roosevelt, a large and vocal group of blacks and whites protested the injustice perpetrated against the soldiers. It was not until a 1972 pardon was issued by President Nixon that the soldiers were cleared of wrongdoing and granted posthumous honorable discharges. Condition: Button has no maker name or backpaper; postcard with slight overall toning and good condition overall.