I am surprised that such an act would generate hostility in the US at any time and presume the soldiers would likely have served in either world war. I am interested in any information that can address this rough time period as I naively would have expected a uniform in that era to confer protection not increase hostility. I realise it is almost certainly regional in nature so please do specify geography in answers. Original article. Relevant picture.
Not sure if black US soldiers were lynched for wearing their uniforms, but the picture supplied by the site does not match the description.
The picture shows the lynching of Nease Gillespie, John Gillespie and Jack Dillingham, which took place in Salisbury, North Carolina in 1906. They were accused along with two others in the murder of the white Lyerly family in which a mother, father, and two children were bludgeoned to death.
All five were on trial when a mob, estimated at 3,000 by press reports at the time, overran the county prison where they were being held and abducted the three men who were thought to be the principals in the crime (the remaining two were not touched, and officers took them to Charlotte that same night for their safety). An article published by the Associated Press on August 7, 1906 states:
The negroes were quietly marched northward toward Spencer, but a halt was made at Henderson's ball grounds in the edge of town. There the negroes were given time to confess the crime. They refused to either deny or confess and were so thoroughly frightened as almost to have lost the power of speech. John Gillespie wept piteously and begged for his life and declared his innocence.
The process was slow. The men were drawn up and as the man walked out from them the rope broke. They were drawn up singly again and when all were disposed of the crowd of five thousand was ordered to sit down while the leaders shot. An incalculable number of shots were fired into the bodies of the wretches and one rope was cut in two. The crowd then dispersed and went home.
The Governor of North Carolina called it a "blot on the state," and at least four men in connection with the lynching were brought to trial. One of the men believed to be the ringleader, George Hall, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. I don't know the results of the other trials.
I don't know if anyone has ever determined whether Nease Gillespie, John Gillespie and Jack Dillingham were guilty or innocent, although even if guilty, their lynching was still abhorrent and grossly inhumane.
In any case, I don't know the answer to your question. I just found it kind of insulting that the website couldn't bother to get their names, and just attached a seemingly random description to it. Could be just an innocent mistake though.
Some sources:
Troubled Ground: A Tale of Murder, Lynching, and Reckoning by Claude Clegg
I can't recall any cases where Black soldiers were specifically lynched for using their uniforms, but their return from Europe did precipitate a rash of White-led violence against Black communities. Europe did not have the same fraught racial history as the USA, and as such Black soldiers found themselves treated much more equitably and with more respect. They were empowered with a great deal more freedom than they'd ever experienced in the States. Thus returning soldiers found it difficult to return to the status quo that existed in their home country, especially in areas where Jim Crow laws were in effect. Racial tensions were additionally heightened by the competition for jobs that came from the massive numbers of demobilizing Black and White soldiers.
The pattern of these riots general proceeded as follows:
You saw this again and again during the Red Summer of 1919. Throughout the summer White-led mobs attacked Black communities in cities throughout the country. Black communities and economic centers were burned to the ground from Chicago to DC to Arkansas to Omaha. Thousands of Black men and women were lynched. Red Summer is a very readable overview. Here's a review of it that also gives more details about the violence, and here is an interview with the author.
The violence extended outside this one summer of course--the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 was a particularly noxious example. A Black elevator operator was accused of raping a White woman, and White mobs descended on Tulsa's Greenwood District, one of the biggest economic centers in Black America at the time. Tulsa was segregated by law, so this area was composed almost entirely of Black residences and businesses. The entire neighborhood, something like 30-40 blocks, turned into a war zone and was converted to rubble. White attackers even flew planes over the District to drop makeshift incendiary bombs and shoot at residents with rifles. State troops had to be called in to stop the violence. Here's an article from last year about one of the survivors, and here's the 2001 report commissioned by Oklahoma to study the riot.
It's important to note that White-led destruction of Black communities had a long history before World War I. The post-WWI riots were notable because of the density within a short time period and the fact the aforementioned Black soldiers were frequently able to leverage their experience into a decent military response. They built barricades, they set up snipers, etc. This served as a point of pride for many Black people as this was the first time they'd been able to fight back against White mobs in an organized fashion.
I will see if I can dig up more formal academic sources for you--I am at home and this is not my central area of study. It is a extremely ugly and under-studied area of US history.
