
Charles Young was the 3rd
African-American graduate of
West Point, the 1st black U.S. N
ational Park Superintendent, 1st black
military attaché, 1st black to achieve the rank of C
olonel, and Highest-ranking Black Officer in the
United States Army until his death in 1922. Young was born in 1864 into
slavery to Gabriel Young and Arminta Bruen, but he grew up a free person.
His father escaped from slavery in 1865, going across the
Ohio River to
Ripley, Ohio, to enlist as a private in the Fifth Regiment of the Colored Artillery (Heavy) Volunteers during the
American Civil War. His service earned him and his wife freedom, as did emancipation at the end of the war. As a youth, Charles attended the all-white
high school in Ripley, the only one available. He graduated at age 16 at the top of his class. Following graduation, he taught school for a few years at the newly established black high school of Ripley.
While teaching, Young took a competitive examination for appointment as a cadet at
United States Military Academy at
West Point. He achieved the 2nd highest score in the district in 1883, and after the primary candidate dropped out, Young reported to the academy in 1884. Young graduated in 1889 with his commission as a second lieutenant, the 3rd black man to do so at the time. He was first assigned to the
Tenth U.S. Cavalry Regiment. Through a reassignment, he served first with the
Ninth U.S. Cavalry Regiment, starting in Nebraska. His subsequent service of 28 years was chiefly with black troops—the
Ninth U.S. Cavalry and the
Tenth U.S. Cavalry, black troops nicknamed the "
Buffalo Soldiers" since the
Indian Wars. The armed services were racially
segregated until 1948, when President
Harry S. Truman initiated integration by
Executive order, which took some years to complete. Beginning in 1894 as a lieutenant, Young was assigned to
Wilberforce College in Ohio, a
historically black college (HBCU), to lead the new military sciences department, which was established under a special federal grant. In 1903, Young served as
captain of a black company at the
Presidio of San Francisco. When appointed acting
superintendent of
Sequoia and
General Grant national parks, he was the 1st black superintendent of a national park. In 1912 Young was assigned as
military attaché in
Liberia, the 1st African American to hold that post. 2013 - President
Barack Obama used the
Antiquities Act to designate Young's house as the 401st unit of the National Park System, the
Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument.


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