FEBRUARY 13, 2008

By Emily Holt
Seattle University Spectator staff writer

Last Thursday Feb. 7, the Seattle University history department welcomed journalist and author Jack Hamann to speak in the LeRoux Room about his new book, “On American Soil,” the non-fiction record of one of the largest and most overlooked civil rights abuses of World War II. Hamann spoke on behalf of the Annual Albert Mann Memorial Lecture, a series in honor of the beloved history professor.

A graduate of UCLA and University of Oregon, Hamann has been in the industry for 27 years, a decade of which he spent as a network correspondent and documentary producer for CNN and PBS. Hamann has won dozens of awards for journalism and 10 Emmy awards.

His book was named the outstanding investigative book of 2005 by the Investigative Reporters and Editors and received the 2007 Horace Mann award, which is bequeathed to those who address humanitarian concerns.

“On American Soil” was directly responsible for the 2007 U.S. Army Board for Correction of Military Records’ decision to overturn the verdicts in the 1944 Fort Lawton court martial, the longest court martial in U.S. history. That year, 43 black soldiers were prosecuted for the supposed lynching of Guglielmo Olivotto, an Italian-American P.O.W. at the Seattle fort.

According to Hamann’s investigation, Leon Jaworski, the late prosecutor of the infamous 1974 Watergate trial, withheld evidence from the defendants, leading to their wrongful conviction. Hamann shows that Jaworski’s actions were tied to an implicit racism and self-interest.

Hamann’s work caught the eye of Congressman Jim McDermott, who has since written a bill calling for the Secretary of the Army to re-evaluate the Fort Lawton convictions. The bill that he and Congressman Duncan Hunter of California are working on would also give financial reparations equivalent to the cost of what the soldiers lost while they were imprisoned.

McDermott continues to push this bill, despite the fact that none of the men are Washington constituents, for a simple reason.

“It really comes down to this: acting for what is right. And very seldom do you get to do something that is absolutely right with no political benefit,” said McDermott. “If we do not speak up for one another, then ultimately the democracy comes apart and everyone is on their own.”

McDermott added that proposing the bill and mobilizing the people was the easy part for him; he was more worried about what response he would get, though he expects that the bill will fare well in Congress.

The most important concern for McDermott, he said, was serving the families of these victims.

LaShell Drake is the grandchild of Booker Townsell, an exonerated Fort Lawton defendant who was recently honored by national and local leaders in a memorial service in Milwaukee.

Drake said her whole family knew her grandfather had served in World War II and was dishonorably discharged, but he has always proclaimed his innocence.

“It was an unwritten rule in our home that [his discharge] was just something not to be discussed. He experienced it, but he did not want to discuss it,” said Drake. She added that the discharge did not turn him into a bitter man—in fact, she called him “a jovial [and] strong-willed man.”

Drake said her and her family have “adopted [Jack] as part of the family” because of the effect his work has had.

“We felt as if there was so much justice. Here is this man, who does not know any of us, taking on the charge for all of these families,” said Drake.

McDermott echoed the sentiment that Hamann’s work was indeed a labor of love.

“This is a victory for journalism,” said McDermott. “He could have walked on [and] hundreds of people have. He was the true journalist who stopped to figure this out.”

The key to Hamann’s uncovering of the truth of the fateful trial lay in a document that he and his wife, Leslie, found while in the Fort Lawson archives. The document led to an investigation he called a classic “who-done-it” mystery in which he ultimately proved that the black soldiers did not, in fact, lynch Olivotto. The army has now come out and agreed with Hamman on the true identity of the murderer.

One of the main issues that Haman confronted in uncovering the truth lay in the media’s willingness to accept presumptions based on racism.

“There were too many reporters who followed the party line without questioning things that didn’t make sense. They were too willing to report just that one side of the issue,” said Hamann, who also noted that the media then is not too different from the media now.

Hamann was driven by a desire to protect the memory of people’s families and the fact that the story involved his own local community.

McDermott attested to the fact that Hamman’s work, while doing service to many families, points to a greater hope about the role of journalism in politics.

“[His work] says that in democracy, we make mistakes, no question, but we can always right them later.”