BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



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          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  








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            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
          















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