"The 24th" is based on the Houston riot of August 1917. The Twenty-fourth United States Infantry Regiment, a black regiment, was stationed in Houston, Texas in 1917 shortly after America entered World War I. This was a period when officially sanctioned racial discrimination throughout the South was enforced through the so-called "Jim Crow laws", and the presence of black troops near a strictly segregated Southern city was resented by many white citizens, leading to increasing racial tensions. Black soldiers were subject to discrimination, harassment and provocation by whites, especially by the all-white police force. The riot was sparked when rumours spread that a white mob was planning to attack the camp where the soldiers were based. The rumour was false, but in the summer of 1917 it was a plausible one, as racial violence had recently erupted in other American cities. The rioting soldiers marched on white districts of the city; in the ensuing violence around 20 people were killed.
The main character in this drama is William Boston, a black soldier who stands out among the others because he is clearly an educated man; in fact, he has a degree from the Sorbonne. Although he is keenly aware of, and resents, racial injustice, he has joined the army to fight for his country because he believes that white Americans will be more sympathetic to the cause of racial equality if they can be persuaded that their black countrymen share their patriotic ideals. (Having been educated in France, he is also a Francophile who supports the Allied cause). Boston attracts the attention of Colonel Norton, a relatively liberal white officer, who is impressed by the young man and wants him to enter a training school for black officers.
Boston is also lighter skinned than most of his fellow soldiers, some of whom regard him as a "mulatto", as mixed-race people were then known. Although he insists that both his parents were African-Americans, this, along with his education, is something which sets him apart; white society insists that he is black, but other black people see him as partly white. He initially rejects Norton's idea that he should train as an officer, but later reconsiders the idea; he is being given the chance to hold a position of authority and responsibility in a society which has been very reluctant to offer such positions to black Americans. When the riot breaks out, however, he must decide where his loyalties lie, and has an even starker decision to make when the rioters are court-martialled. Trai Byers, an actor I had not previously come across, is excellent as Boston, as is Thomas Haden Church as Norton, a man who finds his liberalism tested to destruction by the riot.
A feature of the film is director Kevin Willmott's use of colour, or perhaps I should say his lack of use of any bright colours. The predominant tones are browns, khaki and dull yellows- the colours of the soldier's uniforms, of their tents, of the buildings and of the dried grass towards the end of a long, hot summer. The intention may have been to give the film a bleak, sombre look, in keeping with the predicament in which the soldiers find themselves.
When the anti-racist film "Crash" won the "Best Picture" Oscar in 2005, a common reaction (especially among supporters of the rival "Brokeback Mountain") was that racism was yesterday's problem rather than today's and that films about racism were therefore outdated. A lot has happened in the last fifteen years, however, to make us realise that racism has not gone away, despite the election of America's first black President in 2008. Even if bigotry against other races is not as vicious as it was in 1917, it nevertheless remains a major problem both in America and in many other societies. It is significant this film appeared in the year which saw large-scale Black Lives Matter protests around the world after the death of George Floyd. It is an uncomfortable reminder of a period of history which many Americans would prefer to forget, a period when black lives did not, in the eyes of many white people, really matter. As Boston's fiancée Marie says when he speaks to her of "the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", "We ain't got none of them rights, all we got is wrongs". 8/10
