People

On Saturday, January 8th, 2022, Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument (CHYO) hosted a special event to honor the life and legacy of Colonel Charles Young on the 100th anniversary of his passing. The event took place at the Robeson Auditorium on the Central State University campus and was attended by several prominent figures from the community, as well as military dignitaries from the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force.

Co. A of the 10th U.S. Cavalry was stationed at Fort Larned from April 1867 to January 1869. Although they served with dedication, their time at the fort was troubled by racial prejudice.

The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion was the first and only mostly all-Black (they had members of Caribbean and Mexican decent) female unit to be deployed overseas during WWII. Their nickname was “Six-Triple Eight” and their motto was “No Mail, Low Morale.” The unit sorted and routed mail for millions of American service members and civilians in Europe. On February 28, 2022, the 6888th were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

Seven decades before the superhero Black Panther made his big screen debut, the original Black Panthers of the 761st Tank Battalion were roaring through Europe, battling Axis forces through Germany under the command of General George S. Patton.

Aaron R. Fisher was born in 1892 in Lyles, Indiana. He enlisted in the Army in 1911. He served with the Buffalo Soldiers of the Twenty-Fourth Infantry during the Punitive Expedition into Mexico. He was an officer in the all-Black 366th Infantry in World War I. He received the Distinguished Service Cross and France’s Croix de Guerre for his actions in France. He was an ROTC instructor at Wilberforce University from 1936 to 1947. He died on November 22, 1985, in Xenia, Ohio.

Aileen Cole was an African American nurse during World War I. She was one of eighteen Black nurses accepted into the Army Nurse Corps. Cole was stationed at Camp Sherman in Chillicothe, Ohio on December 1, 1918. Though she arrived after the Armistice, she and other nurses helped troops infected with the Spanish Flu and those wounded overseas.

Augustus Snoten served in the segregated military for nearly 30 years. His service took him from Puerto Rico to Alaska and many places in between.

Augustus Walley was born enslaved in 1856 in Maryland. He enlisted in the Ninth Cavalry in 1878. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for actions on August 16, 1881. He fought at the Battle of San Juan Hill during the Spanish American War in 1898. He died in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 9, 1938.

Benjamin Brown was an early African American recipient of the Medal of Honor, and had a military career that took him throughout the United States and the world.

Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., was born in Washington, D.C. in 1912. He graduated from West Point in 1936. He was the fourth African American to graduate from West Point. During World War II, he led the renowned Tuskegee Airmen. He attained the rank of four-star general in 1998. He died in 2002 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.