Rice lecture to look at
role of Camp Logan riot in Houston’s history, growth

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News staff

The 1917 riot at Camp Logan
in what is today part of Memorial Park played a significant role in
Houston’s history. It also challenged Houston’s self-image as a progressive
city.

	KAREN ROSENTHALL

Karen Rosenthall, a third-year doctoral student in Rice’s English
Department, will discuss “Houston’s Rhetoric of Economic Progress and the
1917 Camp Logan Riot” Sept. 16 at 7 p.m. in the Humanities Building, Room
117.

Since its earliest days, Houston has promoted itself as a
center for politics, business and urbanization. This rhetoric of progress and
forward-thinking has remained central to how Houston presents itself and is
thought of even today. The riot by African-American soldiers stationed at Camp
Logan threatened that self-image,
Rosenthall will argue. Her lecture will examine how the incident affected the
way Houstonians thought about their city.

The free lecture is open to the public and is part of the Scholars-in-Residence
program, a partnership between The African-American Library at the Gregory
School and Rice’s HERE (Houston Enriches Rice Education) Project. The Scholars-in-Residence program
assists fellows whose research can benefit from extended access to the Gregory
School’s archives as well as the Woodson Archives in Rice’s Fondren Library.

A second lecture
in this series, “Exploring the 1917 Camp Logan Riot’s Connection to
Houston,” will take place at The African-American Library at the Gregory
School, 1300 Victor St., Sept. 21 at 5 p.m.

For more information visit http://here.rice.edu/Scholars-in-Residence.