Among the neat rows of crisp white headstones spread across the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, where more than 180,000 service members are interred, 17 bore only a name and date of death. 

The World War I soldiers had been among 19 executed by hanging on the banks of Salado Creek after three courts martial of 110 black soldiers charged with murder and mutiny in the August 1917 “Houston Riots.” 

They were buried creekside on the Army post until the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reinterred them at the National Cemetery in 1937. 

But, in keeping with standard procedure for soldiers sentenced to death, the marble headstones on their graves had no state of origin, rank or service history. 

Then last year the Department of the Army reviewed the case, ruled that the trials were unfair and set aside all convictions. The soldiers’ records were changed to reflect honorable discharges. 

But the markers remained nearly bare until Thursday, when the VA’s National Cemetery Administration dedicated new stones that fully honor their service and rights a century-old wrong.

“Today, the focus is not on that history,” said Tanya Bradsher, deputy secretary of Veterans Affairs. “It is not on the marker, the trials or the army decision. Rather, the focus is on restoring dignity, honor and respect.”

Following three rifle volleys and mournful playing of “Taps” on an unseasonably warm afternoon, the soldiers’ names were read aloud one by one.

As members of the Buffalo Soldiers reenactors unveiled the newly inscribed headstones, a refreshing breeze unfurled flags and spread golden oak leaves across the ground. 

Soldier Pat McWhorter’s headstone now shows that he was an Army private from Georgia who served in the 24th Infantry.

“We ask for your forgiveness as we realize what a man can do to another man,” said Chaplain (Col.) James Hall of U.S. Army North during the invocation. 

The dedication was the somber finale to years of work for justice by legal experts, historians, veterans and other activists to exonerate the soldiers. It was also the fulfillment of a promise and life’s work for some of the soldiers’ descendants.

Angela Holder, a history professor from Baton Rouge, said she was 6 years old when a great-aunt, Lovie Ball Kimble, told her about the big brother she had lost at age 27. 

Jesse Moore had been a corporal serving in the all-Black 3rd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, at Camp Logan in Houston, where the Buffalo Soldier regiment was dispatched to guard a construction site for a military training camp. 

The violence was the result of tension between the all-white Houston police and the regiment. According to the Texas Historical Association, police officers beat, shot at and arrested multiple soldiers and officers before the riot broke out.

Holder’s family did not learn where Moore was buried until 1987, she said. When Holder visited the cemetery in 2001, she discovered the headstone inscription for her great uncle and the other 16 soldiers interred side-by-side were incomplete. 

“That’s when I made a promise to them: I’m going to fix this,” Holder said. She began by writing letters.

On Thursday, standing next to Moore’s rectified headstone and holding photos of Kimble and Moore, Holder was sure her great-aunt would feel grateful and humbled. “She would say God heard her prayers,” she said.

Jason Holt of New Jersey, a descendent of Pfc. T.C. Hawkins, also attended the ceremony and addressed the small crowd gathered beneath a white canopy installed near the graves.

“Will what we do today balance the scales?” Holt said. “I don’t know, but it’s an attempt to make things right. The miscarriage of justice is not just against the soldiers, the miscarriage of justice affects everyone that was involved.”

A third descendant of the 17 soldiers, Charles Anderson, attended on behalf of Sgt. William C. Nesbit. The Army presented Anderson, Holder and Holt each with a folded flag and certificates of honorable discharge.

Yvette Bourcicot, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army’s Manpower and Reserve Affairs, said she hoped the dedication would serve as one more step in a “long but worthwhile journey down the path of restorative justice.”

“The soldiers of the 24th are going to take their rightful place in history alongside African Americans who have served this country honorably and deserve our respect,” Bourcicot said.

Gracus Dunn, a retired brigadier general in the Army, attended both the ceremony in Houston last year and Thursday’s memorial at Fort Sam Houston. 

Dunn said he worked for several years with members of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, other historically Black Greek fraternal organizations and the NAACP to help overturn the convictions. He hoped the ceremony would bring closure for the families of the victims. 

Bryant Pearson, president and founder of the Bowtie Boys, a Dallas-based youth mentoring organization, began making the field trip to San Antonio to visit the graves seven years ago. Approaching the memorial event on Thursday brought tears to his eyes, he said.

The teen boys in his care had heard the stories of how due process was not followed in the case of the Buffalo Soldiers and were inspired to start writing to congressmen and to newspapers. 

“Everybody kept saying that it’s such a hassle to get something like this done, but when we made the decision, we were not going to stop,” Pearson said. 

The soldiers’ graves are located just inside the main gates of the National Cemetery, 1520 Harry Wurzbach Rd., in section PA, sites 20-36. A  memorial describing the history is posted nearby. More information is posted here.