Charles Young was just a couple of years old when he and his family escaped slavery by crossing the Ohio River into Ripley, Ohio. He would go on to become the first Black man to become a colonel in the United States Army, the first Black National Park superintendent and the highest-ranking Black man in the regular army during his lifetime.
Young was a “Buffalo Soldier,” the name given to the all-Black 9th and 10th Army Regiments by the Native Americans they encountered. Today, the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument in Wilberforce, Ohio commemorates Young’s life.
Young and the other Buffalo Soldiers could soon be honored in Ohio with a state day of commemoration.
On June 16, the Ohio House of Representatives unanimously passed House Bill 238, which would make July 28 “Buffalo Soldiers Day” in Ohio. Buffalo Soldiers Day is recognized nationally. The bill has yet to pass the Senate.
“It is vital to the preservation of the history of Buffalo Soldiers and the contributions they made to American history that we honor them today with recognition on July 28th,” co-sponsor of the bill Rep. Erica Crawley, D-Columbus, said on the floor of the House. “Despite suffering discrimination that plagued African Americans or Black Americans during the days of segregation, the members of the cavalry and infantry regiments served with pride and distinction.”
Who were the Buffalo Soldiers?
In 1866, Congress created six all-Black army regiments in response to the severe depletion of troops after the Civil War. For the first time, peacetime regiments included Black soldiers.
Buffalo Soldiers acted as park rangers, building roads, protecting U.S. mail and defending the American frontier from poachers. They faced racist hostility, even from the settlers they were meant to protect.
Buffalo Soldiers were often commanded by whites and many from the Army establishment believed they would desert. In contrast, Buffalo Soldiers had the lowest military desertion and court-martial rates during their time.
“It really led to a beginning of a legacy of African Americans fighting and earning their freedom in their own way,” said Derek Pridemore, a curatorial assistant at the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center. “They were fighting against white supremacy in all kinds of ways, but to be able to do that in the military was a huge step forward.”
However, their involvement in westward expansion complicates their storied legacy. By using their military service to fight for equal rights, they often fought in government-led wars against Native Americans for their land. On the other hand, Pridemore said the Buffalo Soldiers were sometimes resistant to participating in the violence, as they recognized the same mode of violence against themselves.
These soldiers also fought in the Spanish-American War, the Philippine-American War, both World Wars and the Korean War. In the mid-1950s, the Army desegregated all military units.
Learn more about Buffalo Soldiers in Ohio
You can learn more about Buffalo Soldiers at the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce. The museum boasts a real buffalo-hide coat once worn by a Buffalo Soldier and is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. from Wednesdays to Sundays. The National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center is located at 1350 Brush Row Rd inside Central State University, a historically Black college.
You could also visit Charles Young’s home at the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument – open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. The national monument is at 1120 US-42 in Xenia.
Grace Deng is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
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