Camp Van Dorn Slaughter facts for kids

The Camp Van Dorn Slaughter is the name of a conspiracy theory that became popular after a book was published in 1998. This book claimed that about 1200 soldiers from an all-Black army unit, the 364th Infantry Regiment, were killed by white soldiers in June 1943. This was said to have happened at Camp Van Dorn, a U.S. Army base near Centreville, Mississippi.

However, there is no strong proof to support these claims. The U.S. Department of Defense investigated for over a year and found no evidence. Because of this, most people do not believe this story. The book itself said that more than two-thirds of its content was fiction.

What Was the 364th Infantry Regiment?

During World War II, the U.S. Army was segregated. This meant that Black and white soldiers were kept in separate units. The 364th Infantry Regiment was one of many all-Black regiments. It was formed in 1942. Many of its soldiers came from northern states. These soldiers often felt upset by the Jim Crow laws in the South, which enforced segregation and treated Black people unfairly.

Life in Phoenix, Arizona

In 1942, the 364th Regiment was sent to Camp Florence near Phoenix, Arizona. Their job was to guard German prisoners of war. Phoenix was also a segregated city. Black people and other minority groups, like Hispanic, Native American, and Asian people, faced many restrictions in their daily lives.

About 100 soldiers from the 364th Regiment were involved in a racial incident in Phoenix. It was called The Thanksgiving Day Riot. This happened in the Black neighborhood of the city. A fight broke out after some soldiers were shot and held by Black military police (MPs) from Camp Florence. More soldiers came back to the area with weapons. The conflict grew, and local police also got involved.

The MPs and other police blocked off a large area to catch soldiers who had run into civilian parts of the neighborhood. In the end, three people were officially reported as killed: one officer, one enlisted soldier, and one civilian. Twelve soldiers were injured. Some people still claim that more civilians were killed during attacks on the Black neighborhood.

While in Phoenix, members of the 364th were involved in other smaller problems.

Life at Camp Van Dorn

In 1942, the 364th Regiment was moved to Camp Van Dorn. This camp was near Centreville, Mississippi, close to the Louisiana border. This area was mostly rural, with many cotton farms. Most of the civilians were Black, but white people held most of the power. Centreville was a small town with only about 1200 people.

Camp Van Dorn was very large. It had almost 30,000 soldiers in total, and most of them were white. There were about 3,000 men in the 364th Regiment and another 3,653 Black soldiers at the camp.

One soldier, Private William Walker, was shot and killed by a local sheriff in 1943. The sheriff was helping military police at the camp's front gate. Private Walker was returning to the base after some time off.

After these events, the soldiers took part in military training exercises called the Louisiana Maneuvers. By 1943, most of the 364th Regiment was stationed in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. The Japanese army had been pushed out of that area the year before. About 300 members of the regiment were moved to other units in the U.S.

The Book About the Alleged Massacre

Carroll Case, a writer and artist from McComb, Mississippi, wrote a book in 1998. He published it himself. The book claimed that about 1200 members of the all-Black 364th Regiment were killed by white people in a riot at Camp Van Dorn. The book did not give an exact date for this event in 1943. His book was called The Slaughter: An American Atrocity. When it first came out in August 1998, not many people noticed it.

The book had two main parts. Part One was short and presented some historical information. Most of the book was Part Two, which Case said was a fictional story. He called this part "The Evangeline File."

The Washington Post newspaper reported that Case's book did not clearly explain why the shootings supposedly happened. It also didn't give a firm date or the names of any other people involved or victims. Case said he had accounts from two other local people who claimed to have seen the killings. However, in 15 years, he never found any soldier from the 364th Regiment or any of the other 30,000 soldiers at the camp who remembered this alleged event. Case mainly relied on a dramatic story from a white man about the supposed massacre. But Army records showed that this man was not even at Camp Van Dorn at the time. This man had died by the time the book was published.

Official Investigations

The book gained more attention after Case appeared on a BET show to talk about it. The National Minority Military Museum Foundation, based in Oakland, California, then investigated the claims. This organization has supported research about Black military history since 1978. A spokesman for the foundation, Charles Blatcher, said they concluded that Case’s claims were "not sufficiently supported by historical documentation."

Congressman Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi) and the NAACP asked the Department of Defense to investigate. The Department of Defense spent over a year looking into the 364th Regiment and the alleged events. In December 1999, they announced that Case's claims were not true. They said no strong proof of the alleged massacre had been found. William E. Leftwich III, a defense official, said the book was a "work of fiction and a marketing grab." The Army's report, called A Historical Analysis of the 364th Infantry in World War II, was released on December 23, 1999. It stated that "All of the nearly 4000 men who were assigned to the 364th in 1943 have been traced to their separation from military service." This means the Army knew what happened to all the soldiers.

Kweisi Mfume, who was president of the NAACP at the time, asked for another federal investigation. He wanted the Attorney General, Janet Reno, and the Justice Department to conduct it.

The Washington Post published a detailed report about how Case's claims lacked support. It also reviewed the Department of Defense's research and how they tracked the unit's personnel.

In Popular Culture

• The History Channel aired a documentary called Mystery of the 364th on May 20, 2001. It was produced by Greg DeHart.
• Ray Stern of the Phoenix New Times mentioned this documentary in 2020. He said that "good conspiracy theories don't die if there's money to be made." He noted that the History Channel segment about the 364th and the alleged killings is "still enjoyed by conspiracy theorists."