Camp Logan - The Camp Logan Riot

The Camp Logan Riot

In 1917, black soldiers at the camp were involved in the Houston Riot, a riot triggered by the belief that a fellow soldier was being unfairly incarcerated in the city of Houston.

Camp Logan also developed further notorious attention among the residents of Houston the following year as the focal point of the first widespread local outbreak of the deadly 1918 Spanish Flu. By September 24 of that year over 600 cases had been reported by the US Army surgeons at the camp, who made the fateful decision to send the sick to homes and hospitals in the community to try to protect those soldiers still healthy at the camp. By October 3 doctors reported 48 soldiers from the camp had died from the flu and it had begun to rapidly spread through the city. By October 9 the local newspapers reported that 33 flu related deaths had now occurred in the city and that the Mayor, District Clerk, and 20 police officers had contracted. Flu cases in the city were now reported to be in the thousands and steps were being take to put quarantines in place. Public schools, restaurants, and gatherings were shut down including the Barnum & Bailey Circus and local churches.

In recent years, Camp Logan refers to the neighborhood tucked in to the northeast corner of Memorial Park, bordered by Westcott and Arnot streets, north of Memorial Elementary School.