[United States Statutes at Large, Volume 127, 113th Congress, 1st Session]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

 
PROCLAMATION 8945--MAR. 25, 2013

Proclamation 8945 of March 25, 2013

Establishment of the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Colonel Charles Young was the highest ranking African-American
commanding officer in the United States Army from 1894 until his death
in 1922. He also served as the first African-American superintendent of
a national park, overseeing Sequoia and General Grant (now Kings


[[Page 1263]]

Canyon)
National Parks while commanding a troop of Buffalo Soldiers in the years
before the creation of the National Park Service.
Young served nearly his entire military career with the all-black 9th
and 10th Calvary regiments, often called ``Buffalo Soldiers.''
Commissioned in 1889 as a second lieutenant, Young attained the rank of
colonel in 1917. During his career he served on the western frontier,
saw combat in the Philippines, and rode with General John ``Black Jack''
Pershing in Mexico in 1916. He was the first African American to serve
as a United States military attach[eacute], first to Hispaniola (Haiti
and the Dominican Republic) and later to Liberia. Young's diverse
military career included a posting to Wilberforce University to serve as
a professor of tactics and military science.
Born to enslaved parents in Kentucky in 1864, Young's parents, Gabriel
and Arminta Young, moved to Ripley, Ohio, in 1866 with their two-year-
old son Charles to improve their prospects after the Civil War. This
Ohio River town was a center of abolitionism renowned as a welcoming
place on the Underground Railroad during the antebellum years. Young
thrived there and, in 1881 at age 17, he graduated with academic honors
as a member of his integrated high school class. His mother encouraged
his life-long intellectual and musical pursuits. Young grew up proud of
his father's military service as a Union soldier during the Civil War,
and he heeded his father's advice by entering the United States Military
Academy at West Point. In 1889, Young was the third African American to
graduate from West Point and the last African American to complete West
Point until 1936.
Young established his career between 1889 and 1907, serving in the 9th
Cavalry at western posts as a second lieutenant in Nebraska and Utah
before accepting the military posting at Wilberforce University, where
he was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant. During the Spanish-
American War he was commissioned in the volunteers as a major, and
accepted command of the 9th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Battalion. Although
the unit did not deploy or see action, it gained a reputation for
discipline and efficiency. Following the war, he returned to his
regiment, and was promoted to captain in 1901. He saw combat with the
regiment in the Philippine Islands and returned with the 9th Cavalry to
California, where his troop was selected as honor guard for the visiting
President Theodore Roosevelt--the first time African-American soldiers
had served in that capacity. While assigned to the Presidio, Young and
his regiment of Buffalo Soldiers were dispatched to Sequoia and General
Grant National Parks where Young served as the acting superintendent,
and earned the respect of not only the African-American troops he
commanded, but also of the white construction crews he directed. His
achievements drew the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt. Captain
Young was appointed military attach[eacute] to Hispaniola in 1904--the
first such appointment for an African American--before rejoining the 9th
Cavalry in the Philippines, Wyoming, and Texas from 1908 to 1911.
In 1894, when Young accepted a posting at Wilberforce University, he
returned to Ohio and with his widowed mother purchased a large house and
adjoining farmland, which he named ``Youngsholm.'' While a professor at
Wilberforce University, Young established life-long friendships with
poet Paul Laurence Dunbar and philosopher W.E.B. Dubois. Youngsholm
served as a gathering place for elite African-American thinkers,
performers, and leaders. Young opened his doors

[[Page 1264]]

to aspiring young
people, and welcomed a revolving extended family there even during his
many military postings. Although Young's career took him to far-flung
places, it was Wilberforce, Ohio--where he established his home, raised
a family, mentored a successive generation of leaders, and found
intellectual refuge--that remained his base of operation.
From 1912 to 1916, Young served as the military attach[eacute] to
Liberia, helping to train the Liberian Frontier Force, and then served
as a squadron commander during the Punitive Expedition in Mexico against
Pancho Villa. He distinguished himself at the Battle of Agua Caliente,
leading his men to the aid of a cavalry unit that had been ambushed.
During the same period, Young won additional promotions, to major in
1912, and lieutenant colonel in 1916. The 1916 examination board for his
promotion to lieutenant colonel acknowledged Young's prior illness
(malaria contracted while in Liberia), but concluded he was fit for
duty.
On the eve of World War I, Young was the highest ranking African-
American officer in the U.S. Army. As the United States readied its
forces for Europe, Young and his supporters expected that he would
continue to rise in rank and contribute to the wartime effort.
Subsequent examination boards recommended Young for a promotion, but
also noted medical concerns about his fitness to serve. In June 1917,
Young was selected for promotion to the rank of colonel; however, his
physical exam revealed he suffered from nephritis (a condition first
diagnosed in 1901), high blood pressure, and an enlarged heart. Around
the same time, several Southern Senators were pressuring President
Woodrow Wilson and his Secretary of War to take steps to reassign or
otherwise prevent white officers from serving under Young's command.
Indeed, as the United States entered World War I, the War Department
generally kept African Americans from assuming leadership of African-
American regiments being sent to France and largely restricted African-
American troops to non-combat roles.
In July 1917, Young was medically retired as a result of his illnesses,
and promoted to Colonel in recognition of his distinguished Army
service. Young was disappointed, and he and his supporters asked for
reconsideration. To demonstrate his fitness to serve, Young--who was
then 54--made an historic 500-mile horseback ride from Wilberforce,
Ohio, to Washington, DC Afterwards, the Secretary of War gave Young an
informal hearing, but did not reverse the decision. The War Department's
action in this matter was controversial, especially within the African-
American community, during this time of significant racial tension.
Young continued to protest his retirement and work for the civil rights
of all African-American soldiers.
Yet, Young's career was not over. Though medically retired, he was
retained on a list of active duty officers. During World War I, the War
Department sent him back to Ohio to help muster and train African-
American troops being recruited for the war. Days before the November
1918 armistice, Young was assigned for a few months to Camp Grant in
Rockford, Illinois, to train African-American servicemen for non-combat
duties. Shortly thereafter, at the request of the State Department,
Colonel Young was sent once more to serve again as military
attach[eacute] to Liberia, arriving in Monrovia in February 1920. While
in neighboring Nigeria, he passed away at the British hospital in Lagos
on January 8, 1922. In 1923, Colonel Charles Young became only the


[[Page 1265]]

fourth soldier to be honored with a funeral service at the Arlington
Amphitheatre before burial in Arlington Cemetery.
Colonel Charles Young's story and leadership are also emblematic of the
experience of the Buffalo Soldiers during difficult and racially tense
times. The story of the Buffalo Soldiers' bravery and service is not
fully told at any existing national park sites. In 1866, the Congress
established six all-black regiments, later consolidated to four, to help
rebuild the country after the Civil War and to patrol the remote western
frontier during the ``Indian Wars.'' Although the pay was low for the
time--only $13 a month--many African Americans enlisted because they
could earn more and be treated with more dignity than they typically
could in civilian life. According to legend, American Indians called the
black cavalry troops ``buffalo soldiers'' because of their dark, curly
hair, which resembled a buffalo's coat. Aware of the buffalo's fierce
bravery and fighting spirit, the African-American troops accepted the
name with pride and honor.
The Buffalo Soldiers fought alongside white regiments in many conflicts
and were instrumental in the exploration and settlement of western
lands. They were also an important part of the early history of
America's national parks. Before the Congress created the National Park
Service in 1916, the U.S. Army played a critical role in administering
several parks. The Army sent the Buffalo Soldiers stationed at the
Presidio to manage Yosemite, General Grant, and Sequoia National Parks
in California. The Buffalo Soldiers blazed early park trails, built
roads, produced maps, drove out trespassing livestock, extinguished
fires, monitored tourists, and kept poachers and loggers at bay.
WHEREAS section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16 U.S.C.
431) (the ``Antiquities Act''), authorizes the President, in his
discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic landmarks,
historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or
scientific interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled
by the Government of the United States to be national monuments, and to
reserve as a part thereof parcels of land, the limits of which in all
cases shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper
care and management of the objects to be protected;
WHEREAS the National Park Foundation and the Trust for Public Lands,
with the assistance and cooperation of the Friendship Foundation, Omega
Psi Phi fraternity, and Central State University, have relinquished the
existing remainder of the Youngsholm property, consisting of Colonel
Young's home and surrounding farmland, to the United States for the
purpose of establishing this monument;
WHEREAS it is in the public interest to preserve and protect the objects
of historic and scientific interest associated with Charles Young and
the Buffalo Soldiers at Youngsholm in Wilberforce, Ohio;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of
America, by the authority vested in me by section 2 of the Antiquities
Act, hereby proclaim, set apart, and reserve as the Charles Young
Buffalo Soldiers National Monument (monument) the objects identified
above and all lands and interests in lands owned or controlled by the
Government of the United States within the boundaries described on the
accompanying map, which is attached to and forms a part of this
proclamation, for the purpose of protecting those objects. These
reserved Federal lands and interests in lands encompass 59.65

[[Page 1266]]

acres, which is the smallest area compatible with the proper care and
management of the objects to be protected.
All Federal lands and interests in lands within the boundaries of the
monument are hereby appropriated and withdrawn from all forms of entry,
location, selection, sale, leasing, or other disposition under the
public land laws, including withdrawal from location, entry, and patent
under the mining laws, and from disposition under all laws relating to
mineral and geothermal leasing.
The establishment of the monument is subject to valid existing rights.
Lands and interests in lands within the monument boundaries not owned or
controlled by the United States shall be reserved as part of the
monument upon acquisition of ownership or control by the United States.
The Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) shall manage the monument
through the National Park Service, pursuant to applicable legal
authorities, consistent with the purposes of this proclamation.
The Secretary shall prepare a management plan for the monument, with
full public involvement, within 3 years of the date of this
proclamation. The management plan shall ensure that the monument
fulfills the following purposes for the benefit of present and future
generations: (1) to preserve and protect the objects of historic and
scientific interest identified above, (2) to commemorate the life and
accomplishments of Colonel Charles Young, and (3) to interpret the
struggles and achievements of the Buffalo Soldiers in their service to
the United States. The management plan shall identify steps to be taken
to provide interpretive opportunities concerning Colonel Young and the
Buffalo Soldiers both at the monument and at other sites where
appropriate. The management plan shall also set forth the desired
relationship of the monument to other related resources, programs, and
organizations associated with the life of Colonel Charles Young, such as
the U.S. Army, the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, and Wilberforce University,
as well as to other sites significant to the Buffalo Soldiers.
The National Park Service shall use existing authorities as appropriate
to enter into agreements with Central State University, Wilberforce
University, Omega Psi Phi, the Ohio Historical Society, and other
organizations and individuals to provide further opportunities for
interpretation and education consistent with monument purposes. The
National Park Service shall coordinate with the Golden Gate National
Recreation Area, which manages the Presidio in San Francisco, and
Sequoia, Kings Canyon, and Yosemite National Parks to commemorate the
historical ties between Colonel Charles Young and his military
assignments at those sites, and the role of the Buffalo Soldiers as
pioneering stewards of our national parks. The National Park Service
shall use available authorities, as appropriate, to enter into
agreements with other organizations to provide for interpretation and
education at additional sites with an historic association or
affiliation with the Buffalo Soldiers.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke any existing
withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation; however, the monument shall
be the dominant reservation.


[[Page 1267]]

Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not to appropriate,
injure, destroy, or remove any feature of the monument and not to locate
or settle upon any of the lands thereof.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fifth day of
March, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-
seventh.
BARACK OBAMA




[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TD28MR13.009