Army & Navy - The Battle of Phoenix

The early morning after Thanksgiving in Phoenix, Ariz., sounded like the old days.

Negro soldiers in a small café were celebrating with a final course of whiskey, gin and beer. From somewhere a beer bottle landed on a girl's head. A knife-brandishing soldier charged the Negro Military Policeman who stepped in. When the M.P. shot at the concrete floor the bullet ricocheted into the soldier's leg. M.P.s efficiently rounded up 150 soldiers, began loading them into a bus. Then a single shot turned the row into a riot. Negro Soldiers and M.P.s, a few white officers and men and some...

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