Leon Gilbert

In 1996, an official Army report noted that Gilbert's regiment performed poorly in the early years of the Korean War, as did many white units, but went on to say, "There was no single reason for what happened (to the 24th)...An aggressive enemy, old and worn equipment, inexperience at all levels, leadership failures high and low, casualties among key personnel and a lack of bonding and cohesion in some units all played their part. There was no lack of courage among the officers and men."

In September 1952 the sentence was reduced to seventeen years for "battle misconduct." Gilbert served five years, the maximum penalty for disobedience under peacetime conditions (war was never officially declared in Korea), before he was released.

On August 6, 1951, Colonel Arthur S. Champeny, a white man, was appointed the 24th's commanding officer and informed them he was going to change their reputation from "the frightened 24th to the fighting 24th."

By the early 1950s, various Executive Orders had been issued attempting to end segregation in the U.S. armed forces. They had been largely ineffectual. The 24th Infantry Regiment, which consisted entirely of black soldiers, was thrown into the forefront of the Korean fighting at the outset.

In the fall of 1950, Gilbert was in command of Company A of the 24th, having taken over when his commanding officer was wounded. He received an order to return with twelve of his men to a forward position. Gilbert's company had been forced to withdraw from that position after coming under heavy machine gun fire at close to point blank range, so to return to that position would have been tantamount to suicide. When Gilbert refused the order to return, he was arrested and tried on the spot. Despite Gilbert's suffering from shock and fatigue due to prolonged heavy fighting (according to a letter to his wife, they had gone thirteen days without food or water), he was accused of insubordination and cowardice, and a court martial sentenced him to death. In an interview with the New York Times, Gilbert gave his version of the incident.

Casualties in the 24th were extremely heavy, and replacements and supplies, including shoes, were slow in coming. At one point the U.S. Air Force bombed the 24th by mistake, resulting in serious casualties.

Following the court-martialing of Lieutenant Gilbert, mass court-martialing of whole units of the 24th Regiment ensued, with no comparable action being taken against white units.

Leon Aaron Gilbert, Jr. (November 9, 1920 – March 28, 1999), of York, Pennsylvania was a decorated World War II combat veteran and a lieutenant in the all-black 24th U. S. Infantry Regiment that fought in the Korean War. His court-martial for refusing to obey an order from the regiment's white commanding officer led to worldwide protests and increased attention to segregation and racism in the U.S. military.

Leon Aaron Gilbert, Jr. was born in York, Pennsylvania on November 9, 1920, the eldest of two sons of a blacksmith who had also served in World War I. He was educated in local schools and enlisted in the U. S. Army at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on August 16, 1940. He served with the 92d Division in Italy and was honorably discharged in 1946, then called up again as a reservist in 1947. He was thus a decorated veteran with a record of ten years' service in the Army. He and his wife Kay had two children with a third on the way.