In late August 1968, one of the largest military protests in American history took place at Fort Hood in Central Texas. You’ve never heard of it.
Why?
The year before, on April 4, 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke out for the first time against the Vietnam War. He was assassinated one year to the day later. Just three weeks after he died, world heavyweight boxing champion Mohammad Ali appeared in Houston before a Vietnam War draft board. He was called for induction four times but refused to answer his summons. He was immediately arrested and stripped of his boxing titles.
Fifty-seven years ago on August 23, Black soldiers staged a peaceful protest at Fort Hood — but not against taking up arms in Southeast Asia. They refused to take up arms against American citizens. After Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, thousands of Fort Hood troops were sent to Chicago for riot control duty. A number of Black civilians were killed. You’ve never heard of the Fort Hood protesters because political pundits and the American military didn’t want you to. The Vietnam War was a big enough fiasco, and the powers that be largely squelched coverage of the protest.
In mid-August 1968, another large group of soldiers stationed at Fort Hood was scheduled to return to Chicago in late August to control potential rioters at the Democratic National Convention. At midnight on Friday, August 23,1968, 60 Black troops staged a nonviolent sit-in on base to protest their deployment to Chicago. The majority of these Black soldiers were uncomfortable with being placed in a situation where they might be asked to “police” other Black Americans. Several of the demonstrators said they had grown up in low-income neighborhoods and could empathize with the folks in those areas who might feel civil unrest was necessary. At 5 a.m. that morning, the division commander and members of his staff met with the protesters and discussed their grievances. Seventeen of the demonstrators got up and left, but 43 continued to protest. The protesters were placed in the Fort Hood stockade for failing to report for morning reveille.
The protesting soldiers became known as the “Fort Hood 43,” and their refusal to deploy to Chicago for riot-control duties was one of the largest acts of dissent in the annals of United States military history. Over the next few weeks and months, a number of the Fort Hood 43 were court-martialed and punished, receiving sentences of three to six months of hard labor, a partial forfeiture of their wages, and reductions of rank.
For the last six decades, there has been much made about the hippie movement and white Vietnam War protests. But, arguably, a disproportionate amount of the most significant activist stances involved young black men. And we have drifted into comparably grave straits.
President Donald Trump and his legion of cretinous nimrods have turned the nation into a ludicrous gameshow, and three-quarters of the country is knackered or deeply despondent. Mortgage rates are approaching adult male shoe sizes, masked federal agents are goose-stepping over civil rights, prominent politicos are spread-eagle or facedown (and lubed) and passing Big Beautiful Bills crapping away their last remnants of human decency, moral compass, and political conscience. There’s nothing bonny about Donny, and anyone half-awake is on edge or ready to crawl out onto a ledge (or simply devoid of humanity altogether).
Something has to give, or at least give us an excuse for not thinking about our vile betrayal at the ballot box and the fatuous sausage vat we elected to the highest office on the planet.
We need a distraction.
We need a reason to ignore our additional ignorance and somehow take our minds off the dumpy turd that flatulates across our eye- and ear-waves every day in increasing states of derelict flamboyance and inane kakistocracy.
Enter: Blandman.
Or, in this case, bland men.
Or, even better said, whole leagues of bland men addicted to pro, college, and high school football.
Nothing brings hand-wringers and mouth-breathers together like football season.
There’s nothing important or relevant about American football, football players, or football games in the current moment, but they give us a great escape from our Election-Day ignorance and the blithering of our titty-baby ignoranus-in-chief. We can pour ourselves into the “big” game, join fantasy football leagues, gamble big, or gamble small (on quarter-by-quarter football pools).
We can forget about nepo Einstein visas, porn-star payoffs, pissing parties, and Donny’s predatorial behavior around prepubescents. We can tune out Lady Gaga and Gaza, tranny terror, 10-Commandment commandants, asinine tariffs, and the Kennedy Center Commode Awards.
And who does this sanity-saving distraction ride largely on the backs of?
Young Black men.
It’s certainly not fair to put young Black men on the spot here. They’re not treated very well or trusted, especially if they aren’t carrying, catching, or cradling a pigskin — but what would happen if young Black men collectively pulled a Muhammad Ali, protesting American fascism, at the pro, college, and high school levels? What would happen if young Black men went all Fort Hood 43?
That’s easy.
Trump would be out of office in 60 days.
The January 6 insurrection would be a footnote compared to the “football riots.”
And fascist goons like Gov. Greg Abbott would be unceremoniously dumped headfirst in a downtown Austin Porta-Potty — by conservative Longhorn boosters themselves.
Fort Worth native E.R. Bills is the author of seven nonfiction titles, including Tell-Tale Texas: Investigations in Infamous History.
This column reflects the opinions and fact-gathering of the author(s) and only the author(s) and not the Fort Worth Weekly. To submit a column, please email Editor Anthony Mariani at Anthony@FWWeekly.com. He will gently edit it for clarity and concision.
