BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SCR 128|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SCR 128
Author: Mendoza (D)
Introduced:4/6/16
Vote: 21
SUBJECT: The Buffalo Soldiers
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This resolution honors the Buffalo Soldiers for changing the
face of the United States Armed Forces forever through their
record of unique accomplishments.
ANALYSIS: This resolution makes the following legislative
findings:
1)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.
2)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.
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.
SCR 128
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3)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.
4)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.
This resolution 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.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified4/12/16)
None received
OPPOSITION: (Verified4/12/16)
None received
Prepared by: Jonas Austin / SFA / (916) 651-1520
SCR 128
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