After his release, he made his way to Petaluma, where he opened a shoeshine stand in the early 1930s. Chenault ended up serving 13 years of hard labor at Leavenworth Federal Prison. At the last minute, President Woodrow Wilson commuted their sentences to life imprisonment, later reduced to 20 years. Henry Chenault was among an additional ten soldiers scheduled to be hung. By the end of the evening, 20 people would be dead, 16 of them white, resulting in one of the largest court-martials in American history and, ultimately, the death of 19 Black soldiers by hanging. They were protesting the inhumane treatment they had received from residents and police, including the brutal beating that day of two soldiers by white policemen. Rain was falling the night of August 23, 1917, when 150 Black soldiers marched on the city of Houston. Henry Chenault’s Unknown Role in 1917 Houston Race Revolt Henry Chenault at his shoeshine stand outside the Arcade Barbershop, 18 Western Avenue, 1955 (photo Sonoma County Library)
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