Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 128

Introduced by Senator Mendoza

April 6, 2016

Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 128—Relative to the Buffalo Soldiers.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SCR 128, as introduced, Mendoza. The Buffalo Soldiers.

This measure would honor the Buffalo Soldiers for changing the face of the United States Armed Forces forever through their record of unique accomplishments.

Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, On July 28, 1866, by an act of the United States
Congress, African American men were allowed to join the
post-Civil War army in special segregated units -- the 9th and
10th Cavalry Regiments of the United States Army; and

WHEREAS, Comprised of former slaves, freemen, and black
Civil War soldiers, the Buffalo Soldiers were the first African
Americans to serve in the United States Army during peacetime.
During the latter period of the nineteenth century, the soldiers of
the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments were assigned to Fort Riley,
Kansas, and other areas of the Midwest, where they helped to
maintain order between Native Americans and the settlers, built
forts and roads, patrolled borders, and protected mail coaches and
railroad construction crews; and

WHEREAS, Out of respect for their courage and fighting spirit,
as well as for their dark curly hair and the thick coats made from
buffalo hide that they wore during winter, the Native Americans
of the Midwestern plains honored the soldiers of the 9th and 10th
Cavalry Regiments with the nickname of “Buffalo Soldiers”; and

WHEREAS, When the Indian Wars ended in the 1890s, the
Buffalo Soldiers went on to fight in Cuba in the 1898
Spanish-American War and acted as rangers in Yosemite and
Sequoia national parks; and

WHEREAS, The Buffalo Soldiers of the regular African
American army regiments were among the first to serve as park
rangers in the newly created National Park Service; and

WHEREAS, Approximately 500 Buffalo Soldiers from the 9th,
10th, 24th and 25th regiments served in Yosemite and nearby
Sequoia national parks, with duties from evicting poachers and
timber thieves to extinguishing forest fires; and

WHEREAS, The accomplishments of the Buffalo Soldiers as
park rangers include building the first trail to the top of Mount
Whitney in Sequoia National Park, building the first arboretum in
Yosemite National Park, and clearing miles of trails and building
roads into the national parks for visitor enjoyment; and

WHEREAS, Charles Young, the third African American
graduate of West Point, served as acting military superintendent
of Sequoia National Park in 1903; and

WHEREAS, Even though the Buffalo Soldiers wore the uniform
of the United States Army, the performance of their duties
presented challenges due to racial prejudice. Buffalo soldiers
serving in Yosemite and Sequoia national parks had to fulfill their
duties using diplomacy; and

WHEREAS, During World War II, members of the Buffalo
Soldiers branched out and formed into famous units, including the
24th and 25th Infantry Divisions, the famed Tuskegee Airmen that
included the 99th Fighter (Pursuit) Group, the 332nd Fighter “Red
Tails” Group, and the 761st Tank Battalion of the third Army; and

WHEREAS, Due to an executive order issued in 1948 by
President Harry Truman eliminating racial segregation and
discrimination in the United States Armed Forces, the last all-black
units disbanded during the first half of the 1950s, and, in 2005,
the nation’s oldest living Buffalo Soldier, Mark Matthews, passed
away in Washington, D.C., at 111 years of age; now, therefore, be
it

Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
thereof concurring, That the Legislature honors the Buffalo
Soldiers for changing the face of the United States Armed Forces
forever through their record of unique accomplishments, which
testify to their skill, discipline, integrity, and heroism, and
recognizes and thanks their families and descendants for sharing
an inspiring legacy that speaks to the sense of excellence, potential,
and patriotism shared by all Americans; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of
this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.