The Brownsville Affair, or the Brownsville Raid, was a racial incident in 1906 that arose out of tensions between the black soldiers of the 25TH Infantry and the white citizens in Brownsville, Texas. When a white bartender was killed and a police officer wounded by gunshot, townspeople accused the members of the 25TH Infantry Regiment, a unit of Buffalo Soldiers stationed at nearby Fort Brown. Although commanders said the soldiers had been in their barracks all night, evidence was planted against them. As a result of a U.S. Army Inspector General’s investigation, President Theodore Roosevelt ordered the dishonorable discharge of 167 soldiers. A renewed investigation in the early 1970s exonerated the discharged black troops. The government pardoned them and restored their records to show honorable discharges but did not provide retroactive compensation.
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