The History of the Buffalo Soldiers

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You've seen the photos of Beyonce dawning a Buffalo Soldier's

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T shirt during her Cowboy Carter tour. Some held it

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as a powerful tribute, but critics immediately accused the Grammar

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Winner of military propaganda and glorifying genocide against Native Americans.

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The controversy centered around the language on the back of

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the T shirt, which explicitly stated that the Buffalo Soldiers

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antagonists were enemies of peace, order and settlement, warring Indians, bandits,

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cattal thieves, murderous gunmen, bootleggers, trespassers, and Mexican revolutionaries. Many

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were quick to highlight the deeply paradoxal and controversial role

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black regiments played in the United States web expansion. Yet

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the difficult truth is is that the Buffalo Soldiers were

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a paradox. They were men who fought bravely and made

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significant contributions to a country that often treated them like

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less than human. So today join us while we tell

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the real story of the Buffalo Soldiers. And he likes

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stories like this. You can find more stories like this

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at onemikehistory dot com. I also have a stub stack.

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I would love to see you there. We also have

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a podcast. You can find our podcast one Mike Black

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History wherever you get your podcast. But without further ado,

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let's get started. So who are the Buffalo Soldiers? Well,

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let's rewind back to eighteen sixty six, in the end

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of the Civil War of the South is in ruins.

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Over four million newly freed African Americans are trying to

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find their place in a country that had mostly seasoned

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as outsiders. Then Congress does something different. They form the

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first peace time all Black Army Regiment, the ninth and

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tenth Cavalry and the twenty fourth and twenty fifth Infantry.

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For a lot of black men, especially those who knewly

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been freed or who had fought for the Union, their

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army offered steady pay, chance to learn, and maybe some

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respect in a world where separate but equal was the rule.

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The catch respect was rare, and inside the army racism

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was everywhere. Mostly white officers wanted nothing to do with

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black regiments. Some would take demotions rather than lead them

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Offers who did stay often wanted quick promotions rather than

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real change, which meant poor leadership and few role models.

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General Ulysses Grant had to remind his officers that they

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actually had to support their new troops, and no matter

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how hard they worked, black soldiers faced discrimination not just

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outside their ranks, but inside the chain of command from

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the top down. So because of this, promotions for black

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soldiers were almost impossible. The army capped their advancement, cementing

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their outsider status. Henry O. Flipper, the first black West

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Point graduate, remembered that during my four years in the academy,

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I never had the happiness of being invited to a

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cadets quarters, not once I became a man of reserve,

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because I couldnot be otherwise. This sense of isolation, of

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always having to prove yourself in institutions that were built

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to keep you out. Follow the Flipper and the Buffalo

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soldiers wherever they went, and they went a lot of places,

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but mostly straight to the frontier, the wild West. Their

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orders were to build forts and protect mail routes and settlers,

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and most faithfully fight in the Indian Wars. The United

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States wanted more land and more resources, and these troops

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became a tool for that expansion. So imagine you're a

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black soldier, newly free from enslavement, and now you are

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enforcing the government's policies that push Native people off their land.

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This is a twisted form of irony. One group who

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had just tasted freedom now caught up in someone else's

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fight for survival. And they did all of this with

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secondhand uniforms and leftover gear from the Civil War. The

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horse and their saddles were falling apart. Commanding officers wrote

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angry letters about how their saddles barely filled their mounts

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and the broken equipment. Yes, the whole army had shortages

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after the Civil War, but black regiments were the last

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of the last in line. In addition to all of this,

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they were sent to the toughest, most isolated frontier posts

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because white communities didn't want to see black soldiers around,

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so loneliness, prejudice, and violence from the locals became a

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daily occurrence. Texas was especially harsh. Black soldiers survived daily

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attack and were often blamed for the trouble, sometimes unfairly,

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and many of them were court martialed for it. Despite

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all of this, they got the job done. They fart

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hard against the Mexican border raids in tough terrain deep prejudice.

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The name Buffalo soldiers was a name they earned, maybe

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it was because of their hair, maybe it was because

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of their bison coats or their fighting spirit, but the

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name stuck and the soldiers wore it with pride. The

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phrase buffalo soldiers would later become a generic term for

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all black soldiers, and it's now used for army regiments

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and trace the direct lineage back to black regiments formed

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in eighteen sixty six. But the Buffalo soldier's story isn't

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just about fighting, It's about perseverance. The army made their

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lives very difficult, giving them worn out gear, assigning in

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the toughest, loneliest posts scattered from Texas to Montana. Many communities,

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especially after the end of reconstruction in the South, pushed

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to keep black people, especially those in uniforms, far away,

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fearing that they would disrupt the racial order. So when

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they were sent to isolate it sometimes perilous regions, sometimes

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facing hostility from the white settlers who saw them as

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enemies as they were posed to fight. The Buffalo Soldiers

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stuck it out, and these regiments earned over twenty medals

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of honor, an extraordinary achievement despite everything that was stacked

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against them. So when Americans started protecting wild spaces. The

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Buffalo Soldiers were among the very first park rangers at Yosemite, Sequoia,

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and what is now Kings Canyon. They built trails, they

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stopped poachers, they fought wildfires, and became the pioneering stewards

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of our national parks, years before the National Park Service

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was even founded. Captain James Young, who became the first

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black superintended over a national park, would stay. Thank God,

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I'm able to say that I am a soldier and

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a man, and that I am able to render a

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service to my country, and that the cause of which

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is never dead, the cause of right and humanity. But

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their contributions to this country did not shield them from injustice.

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Coming home meant fighting Jim Crow and rising violence against

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black veterans. The Red Summer of nineteen nineteen saw Black soldiers,

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some of them still in uniform, being intact or even

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killed for daring to hold their head high and serve

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their country. When trouble erupted, such as the Brownsville affair,

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entire companies of Buffalo soldiers were discharged, their career is

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destroyed on shaky testimony and rigged investigations. Presidents promised the

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Buffalo soldiers that their service would open doors in time,

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and time again, those doors were slam shut in their face.

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The armament wouldn't truly These segregated into Truman's Order in

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nineteen forty eight, and even then real integration took much

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much longer, But the Buffalo Soldiers had elastic impact through

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all of this. They built the legacy. They weren't just

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stationed in lonely poles. They marched and rolled across the

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American frontier after the Civil War in places like Texas

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and Kansas, where they became legendary horsemen in a world

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where the odds were completely stacked against them. Later, they

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fought overseas and places like Cuba during the Spanish American War,

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where they charged up San Juan Hill alongside Teddy Roosevelt

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the rough Riders. In the Philippines, they served with distinction,

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even as some Americans questioned their right to even wear

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the uniform. Back home, segregation laws kept the army and

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society as unequal as ever, but the legacy of these

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black regiments reached far, and they helped build roles in

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infrastructure and build settlements, and most crucially, trained generations of

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future army leaders. Both white and black. Their courage and

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grit quietly open doors for future integrations of the military,

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set in the groundwork for the disegregation of the armed forces.

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Their service made undeniable the argument that Black Americans were

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willing and able to serve their country even while the

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country refused to serve them equally. And while the Buffalo

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Soldier's story is full of contradictions, yes, they played a

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major part in America's expansion westward, sometimes fighting against Native Americans,

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many of who was face owned injustice and displacement. This

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puts the Buffalo Soldiers in a complicated place in Black history.

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Freedom fighters for themselves, yes, but also instruments of government

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policy that harmed others. They built literal roads of opportunity

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and carved out freedom for their own families, even as

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they were denied basic right to vote, fair pay, and

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equals under the law. Yet through the humiliation, danger, and doubt,

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they kept showing up, driven by the whole that heavy

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hard one step forward would mean something bigger than just themselves.

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So why does any of this matter? Because the Buffalo

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Soldiers remind us that American history is not simple, never simple.

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It's layered with conflict and courage and hope, and legacy

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is one of pride and paradox of grit and enduring

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questions about belonging. Maybe that's why this story still speaks

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to Black folks, whether it's a song or headline or

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choirt trail in an old forest. They carved out of

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space for themselves and for generations to follow, and honestly,

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they challenge us to make sure that no part of

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our history, no matter how complex, it's, left in the shadows.

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Thank you. This is one of my Black history. I'm

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a hust country boy and this is the story of

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the Buffalo Soldiers. I would love to know what you

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think of the Buffalo Soldiers' legacy. Please drop a comment below.

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Please subscribe to the podcast. You can find our podcast

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wherever you get your podcasts, and you can follow us

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on substack. I pose black history notes every single day

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and write articles every single week. I would like to

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thank all my financial contributors. Without you, none of this

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could be possible. I love you all. Peace.