JUNE 20, 2008

By Seattle Post-Intelligencer Editorial Board

It took more than 60 years to reverse the 1944 convictions of 28 black soldiers in a Fort Lawton disturbance connected to the death of an Italian prisoner of war. What’s a little longer to fix the miserly federal compensation for surviving soldiers and the families of the deceased?

Last October, a U.S. Army ruling found the convictions had been improper. But it later set $725 as the compensation for former soldier Samuel Snow, covering only the pay he should have received while imprisoned for 15 months. The Army said it lacked authority to do any better.

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a provision from Seattle Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott that would ensure proper back pay and benefits, including interest, to Snow and family members who file claims on behalf of those who have died. Appropriately, the measure is included in the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act, named for the retiring Republican congressman from California who joined with McDermott in 2006 to ensure that the cases would be reopened. Their effort came about after McDermott read Seattle author Jack Hamann’s book about the railroading of the African-American soldiers, “On American Soil.”

In the Senate, Bill Nelson of Florida, where Snow lives, has included language to spell out that any payments cannot be claimed by states to make up for Medicaid benefits paid to the wrongly convicted men. Such claims would be especially wrongful since the massive miscarriage of justice (in what became the military’s largest court-martial) led to dishonorable discharges in all but one case and the loss of such veterans benefits as education and health care.

In late July, a tribute to the veterans of the court-martial will be held here, with the Tabor 100 group of African-American businesspeople raising funds to help family members attend. Before that, possibly in the coming week, Congress should finish its fine work on the tragic chapter of discrimination case by ensuring that the Army can offer fair compensation.

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The opinions in our daily editorials are the consensus views of the Post-Intelligencer Editorial Board.

Board members conduct research, including interviewing people who represent various points of view on a topic, and meet together to decide the newspaper’s positions. A board member is assigned to write each editorial, expressing the board’s viewpoint on the subject.

Members of the board are Ken Bunting, Joe Copeland, David Horsey, Kimberly Mills, Roger Oglesby, D. Parvaz and Mark Trahant.