Lee Street Riot

This year, the city of Alexandria, Louisiana installed a historical marker commemorating a confrontation between African American soldiers and white military police during World War II. It’s become known as the Lee Street Riot of 1942, but the story passed down through generations of Black Americans in the town is that it was more of a massacre: unarmed Black soldiers attacked by armed military police. According to the official military of the account, no one died in the confrontation. But University of Southern Mississippi history professor Douglas Bristol says other accounts allege dozens of Black soldiers were killed. Bristol is also a Fellow at the Dale Center for the Study of War and Society. (Segment produced by Abby Haralson) (Photo Credit: City of Alexandria, LA)