Edward Green
Edward Green was a private in the U.S. Army, stationed at Camp Livingston, Louisiana, in 1944. A resident of New York City, he was approximately 23 years old.
Case summary
Some records pertaining to Private Edward Green were misfiled in the case file for Reverend Edward Green. It is the policy of the National Archives and Records Administration to preserve records as they were kept by the originating agency.
Incident
On the evening of March 13, 1944, Private Edward Green was traveling by bus in Alexandria, Louisiana. After Green sat in a section of the bus reserved for whites only, the bus driver, Odell Lachnette (also spelled Lachney), along with other white passengers, told him to move to the back of the bus. Green, who was from New York City, allegedly refused, stating “Where I come from you don’t have to do that,” according to an article published in The Weekly Town Talk on March 18, 1944. Nevertheless, Green agreed to exit the bus. At the corner of Vance Avenue and Hickory Street, Green disembarked through the rear door of the bus. Lachnette exited the bus himself, armed with a club and pistol. Lachnette proceeded to shoot Green once in the chest, killing him. Eyewitness accounts conflicted, with some saying that Green pleaded to Lachnette, “Please don’t shoot me,” while others said that Green confronted Lachnette with a knife.
Aftermath
Lachnette was arrested by city police and a coroner’s inquest was held the following afternoon, on March 14, 1944. Rapides Parish coroner Dr. S.L. Calhoun led the inquest which heard testimony from eyewitnesses and officers who were at the scene. On advice of his attorney, Lachnette declined to take the stand. According to the The Weekly Town Talk, the police reported in the inquest that the shooting occurred during a struggle in which Green had drawn a knife. City patrolmen J.W. Boyce and J.P. Lohman also testified that there was an open knife found near Green’s body and that Lachnette had fired a single shot.
Alexandria Mayor W. George Bowdon, District Attorney Ben Thompson, and Assistant City Attorney John R. Hunter, Jr. were present at the inquest, along with a number of army officers, military police, soldiers, and civilians. The incident quickly became the subject of national interest. Newspapers throughout the country reported on the killing of Green, as well as the inquest’s result, but no charges were filed against Lachnette.
In a March 19, 1944 letter to the War Department, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) demanded an investigation into Green’s killing. Truman K. Gibson Jr., civilian aide to the secretary of war, responded that “Considering the testimony of all the witnesses and the circumstances surrounding this case, the conclusion is inescapable that there was no justification, moral or legal, for the taking of the life of Private Edward Green by Odell Lachnette.” However, the War Department also determined that because the killing did not take place on a “military reservation,” it had no jurisdiction to act, and referred the incident to the Department of Justice.
On April 27, Thurgood Marshall, special counsel to the NAACP, wrote to U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle, urging a “thorough and complete investigation” into the shooting, as well as a prosecution of the bus driver. Marshall wrote that the attacks against black servicemen were increasing: “These attacks are continuing to destroy the morale of our soldiers and sailors.” Green’s killing also prompted inquiries from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who wrote Biddle seeking the DOJ’s intentions.
In its response to both Marshall and Roosevelt, the DOJ determined it could not pursue federal charges in the deaths of Green or other Black servicemembers, because there was no federal statute against killing servicemen. The DOJ instead pointed to legislation under consideration by the U.S. House of Representatives since 1942: a proposed amendment to the law which would make assaulting or killing servicemen a federal crime, by classifying them as federal officers.
Marshall responded to the DOJ in a letter which was distributed to national newspaper outlets, writing: “The bus driver is still working in Alexandria and we are repeatedly receiving requests from Negro soldiers in that area as to what, if anything, is going to be done about this man. I hope you can realize the effect on the morale of the Negro soldiers who realize that although one of their members is killed without provocation, the same government for which they are fighting refuses to take any action whatsoever to prosecute the guilty party.” In an internal memo, Assistant Attorney General Tom Clark wrote to Biddle, “The NAACP’s release infers that we refused to act, rather than the fact that we could not act.”
Case summaries are compiled from information contained in different sources, including, but not limited to, investigative records, arrest reports, court filings, census records, birth and death certificates, transcripts, and press releases. In many cases, the records contain contradictory assertions.
In addition to the incident files associated with this case, this summary relied on the following:
Sources
“Bus Driver Kills New York Soldier,” The Baltimore Afro-American, March 25, 1944
“City Bus Driver, Slayer of Negro Soldier, Released,” Alexandria Daily Town Talk, March 15, 1944
“Justice Dept. Will Not Prosecute For Killing of Soldier,” The New York Age, May 27, 1944
“Negro Soldier Killed by City Bus Driver Here,” The Weekly Town Talk, March 18, 1944