BILL ANALYSIS Ó SCR 128 Page 1 Date of Hearing: June 1, 2016 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON RULES Richard S. Gordon, Chair SCR 128 (Mendoza) - As Amended April 27, 2016 SENATE VOTE: 37-0 SUBJECT: The Buffalo Soldiers SUMMARY: Honors the Buffalo Soldiers for changing the face of the United States Armed Forces forever through their record of unique accomplishments. Specifically, 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 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 SCR 128 Page 2 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. FISCAL EFFECT: None REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION: Support None on file Opposition None on file Analysis Prepared by:Nicole Willis / RLS. / (916) 319-2800 SCR 128 Page 3