Southern Racism Stronger Than War Department And Department of Justice in 1942

 

United States Attorney General Francis Biddle

Beaumont, Texas August 14, 1942 ― On this da/y United States Attorney General Francis Biddle announced that the Department of Justice was for the first time ever initiating legal action against two police officers, Clyde Brown and Billy S. Brown, of the Beaumont, Texas Police Department for Civil Rights violations. The charges were brought for violations of a soldier’s civil rights. 

On July 28^th of 1942 Private Charles J Reco boarded a city bus in Beaumont. The White driver forced him off the bus and into the vindictive and bigoted hands of Beaumont police who beat him badly

Private Reco was on leave and visiting family and friends. While the defense contractors had been desegregated nothing else had, Jim Crow was still in full effect in south Texas. Beaumont was going through a massive boom because the city had become one of the hubs for ship production for World War Two. Both Blacks and Whites had come to the city for work in the defense industry. The competition for jobs and housing exacerbated the existing racial tensions.

So, when Private Reco sat down he did sit in the “Negro Section” but apparently his knees stuck out over this idiotic racial barrier and the driver told Reco to move, since he was seated in the right section Reco told the driver where he could go with several profane adjectives. The driver then called the police.

Once stopped Reco got off the bus, and right into the nightstick of Officer Clyde Brown. Reco stumbled but did not go down and Brown hit him several more times, with enough force to break his hand. There were four officers waiting for Reco and he fought them when they tried to put him in their car. The police officer Billy S. Brown alleged that Reco had attempted to grab his revolver, so he shot Raco in self-defense. A third officer, Ben White also shot Reco. Even with four bullet wounds Private Reco was taken to the police station and charged with disturbing the peace and using abusive language, strangely he was not charged with violating the color line.

From the jail he was transported to the army hospital in Galveston where he healed all his wounds. Reco then requested to speak with superior officers about what happened and requested civil action.

When the charges were filed Beaumont representatives responded as you would expect with total lack of interest. The Chief or Police Ross Dickey stated he would have his officer’s back. “I’m not going to allow my men to get beaten up or cut up as they have in the past” Dickey said. He really wouldn’t have to worry about it.

The case progressed but Biddle wasn’t the man in charge. U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas Steve M. King was the primary prosecutor. King wasn’t a novice he had been in his position since 1936 and had several big cases. He committed investigators to the case but hit a giant White wall. The bus driver J.M. Kirl insisted that not only was Reco profane and rude but threatened him with a knife. The Beaumont police provided minimum cooperation. Even though they spent 4 months trying to collect evidence of the brutality of the two officers, the grand jury refused to indict.

King held a news conference on January 16^th, 1943, to acknowledge that he couldn’t prosecute, “we’re lacking in the elements promising a successful prosecution.” King appeared to be frustrated knowing that bigotry and racism had again emerged victorious in the Jim Crow era.

This was confirmed when the Whites in Beaumont rioted against Blacks in June of 1943 as well as other threats and deaths that were racial motivated over the next 25 years.