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) and Hall (D)
Introduced:4/27/16
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.
Senate Floor Amendments of 4/27/16 make technical changes, and
add Senator Hall as a joint author.
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 endeavored to maintain order between Native Americans and
the settlers arriving in those areas, 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 during the 1898 Spanish-American War
SCR 128
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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 ranging from evicting poachers and
timber thieves to extinguishing forest fires.
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 Pursuit Squadron, the larger 332nd Fighter "Red
Tails" Group, and the 761st Tank Battalion of the Third Army,
plus nearly the entire 92nd Infantry Division.
4)Due to Executive Order 9981 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, First Sergeant
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)
SCR 128
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None received
Prepared by: Jonas Austin / SFA / (916) 651-1520
4/29/16 12:41:35
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