OURstory: Colonel Charles Young (1864-1922)

One of most courageous African Americans in the history of the U.S. military was Colonel Charles Young. I'm pleased to see that a saber owned by Col. Young was included in the America I AM exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center a few years ago.

Young was born March 12, 1864 to ex-slaves in Mayslick, Kentucky. His family moved to Ripley, Ohio, where he attended high school. After he graduated he taught in the Black high school in Ripley. Young was a professor at Wilberforce University. His house near Wilberforce is a National Historic Landmark.

He was the third African American to graduate from West Point in 1889. He graduated in spite of the hatred, bigotry and discrimination he encountered as an undergraduate.

His first assignment after graduation was with the Buffalo Soldiers in the 10th Cavalry in Nebraska, and then in the 9th and 10th Cavalries in Utah.

Young was then awarded a commission as a Major in the Ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Later, during the Spanish-American War, he was in command of a squadron of the 10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers in Cuba.

After the war with Spain, Young was reassigned to Fort Duchesne in Utah where he encouraged Sergeant Major Benjamin O. Davis ... who later became the first African American to reach the rank of Army General.

In 1903 Captain Young was in command of the 10th Cavalry, who were segregated at the Presidio of San Francisco. He was assigned as the acting superintendent of Sequoia National Parks. During his supervisory tenure his troops built a road longer than all previous roads combined. Soon wagons and automobiles were winding their way to the mountain-top forest for the first time.

Young was sent to the Philippines to join his 9th regiment and command a squadron of two troops in 1908. Four years later he was once again selected for Military Attaché duty, this time to Liberia. For his service as adviser to the Liberian Government and his supervision of the building of the country's infrastructure, he was awarded the NAACP Springarn Medal.

Because of his exceptional leadership of the 10th Cavalry in the Mexican theater of war, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and was briefly Fort Huachuca's commander in Texas.

Young was devoted to his wife Ada and their two children; son, Charles Jr. and daughter Marie. He was a renaissance man who played several instruments (piano, violin and guitar) and spoke several languages.

Colonel Charles Young was the highest ranking African American officer in the army when World War I started.

With the explosive arrival of WW1, the public, and especially African Americans considered the possibility of Young receiving a major leadership role in the war. He had met challenges of racism, bigotry, and discrimination embedded within society and within the military. He had shown himself to be exceptional, not only as an military officer, but also as a leader of men.

But justice and the rule of equality in the military were not for Lt. Colonel Charles Young. When he took his scheduled army physical, the doctors said his blood pressure was too high. Young and his comrades, his supporters, and the African American news media believed otherwise. On June 22, 1917, Young was retired, under protest.

The forced retirement didn't sit well with Lt. Col. Young. In June 1918 he made his way on horseback ... over 500 miles ... from Wilberforce OH to Washington DC to demonstrate that he was fit for duty. Once in DC, he asked the military for immediate reinstatement and command of a combat unit in Europe. Young was reinstated and promoted to full Colonel.

Col. Young, was assigned to Liberia as Military Attaché. He died at that post on January 8, 1922, while on a research expedition in Lagos, Nigeria.

Manic Monday: Rank

Villagers, the Manic Monday word this week is 'RANK'. I've shared information about African Americans in the military before. As such, many of you know that my cousin retired from the US Navy as a rear admiral. Of course, the highest-ranked Black military man that most of us know nowadays is retired General Colin Powell. If things had broken a little different for Colin Powell ... he might have become our President instead of George Bush (sigh).

Anyhow, I thought I would point Villagers to high ranking African American officers in the four branches of the military.

1. Air Force - Lt. General John Hopper was the highest-ranking African American in the US Air Force when he retired in 2005, after a distinguished 35-year military career. His last assignment was Vice Commander, Air Education and Training Command at Randolph AFB, Texas. The command recruits, trains and educates more than 370,000 men and women for the aerospace force and the nation.


2. Army - Colonel Charles Young was the highest ranking African American officer in the army when WW1 started. He was also the first African American to reach that rank in the army. Young thought that he would have a major leadership role in World War I as a result of his military experience and rank, but prejudice and injustice led to him being forced out of of the military on June 22, 1917 under protest.


3. Marines - Maj. General Cornell Wilson will be the highest-ranking African American on active duty in the Marine Corps when he receives his second star. He's now commander of the II Marine Expeditionary Force Augmentation Command Element at Camp Lejeune, NC. Wilson often reflects on the accomplishments of Black marines since the The Montford Point Marines were first established after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, which allowed African Americans to be recruited during World War II.


4. Navy - Samuel Lee Gravely, Jr., (1922-2004), was an African American Navy pioneer and a native of Richmond, VA. Gravely built a Navy career that lasted 38 years and included many distinguished accomplishments. He became the first African American to command a U.S. Navy warship (Theodore E. Chandler), the first African American to command an American warship under combat conditions (Taussig), the first African American to command a major naval warship (Jouett), the first African American admiral, the first African American to rise to the rank of Vice Admiral, and the first African American to command a U.S. Fleet (Commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet). The USS Gravely (DDG-107) has been named in his honor. A street on the east side of Richmond, VA is also named in his honor.

Anyhow, these are the thoughts that ran through my mind as I pondered the word RANK. I hope you have enjoyed my Manic Monday effort this week.