My Father A Buffalo Soldier

by Kenny Anderson

My father Jack D. Anderson recently turned 100 years of age on July 13, 2022. Next month my father a veteran will be honored at the 3rd Annual Tuskegee Airman MC Cookout. I knew my father was in the U.S. Army during World War II - growing up he didn't talk much about his military experience.

What I didn’t know and just learned that my father was in the all-Black ‘Buffalo Soldier Division / 92nd Infantry’ the only African American infantry division to see combat in Europe during World War II fighting in the Italian Campaign.

My father raised in racist 'Jim Crow' Mississippi told me he understood clearly that he was fighting for a country that was racist, separate, and unequal; that he was fighting to defend democracy in Europe but was denied civil-rights and voting-rights in America.

However my father said he felt he had a duty to fight the larger global threat of Hitler’s white supremacy ‘Nazism’; that he was proud to be fighting against Nazism in the tradition as a Buffalo Soldier.

Buffalo Soldiers

The Buffalo Soldiers were an all-Black ‘segregated’ infantry that fought in the U.S. Army from 1866-1944. The carnage of the Civil War had severely depleted military troop numbers; the Army needed more men, and it needed a new way to organize them.

On July 28, 1866, the Army Reorganization Act authorized the formation of 30 new units, including two cavalry and four infantry regiments "which shall be composed of colored men."

During the Civil War approximately 186,000 African Americans served in the Union army in the U.S. Colored Troops. Black soldiers served in volunteer cavalry, artillery, and infantry units, but the opportunity to serve as regulars in the Army was not afforded African Americans until after the Civil War.

Due to the Army Reorganization Act about half of the Civil War Black Troops took the opportunity and signed on to serve as regulars in the new restructured Army. For the first time in history, African American men were now considered "regular" soldiers.

Black soldiers could now serve their country and further their quest for equality in the institution that they thought would give them the best opportunity to do both – the U. S. Army. This U.S. army reorganization laid the foundation for the proud tradition of the all-Black "Buffalo Soldiers."

The Buffalo soldiers began their military campaign as the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry spending much of their time in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Indian Territory protecting citizens, mail and supply routes and battling hostile Native Americans, and outlaws. It was during battling Native Americans that Black troops got their name “Buffalo Soldiers”.

Historians say the name Buffalo Soldiers was given to Black soldiers by Native Americans because of the Black soldiers’ thick dark hair that resembled the fur of a buffalo and they fought so valiantly and fiercely that Natives revered them as they did the mighty buffalo; thus the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry adopted the Buffalo as their symbol.

The 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments also served in the Philippines in the early 1900s. Despite proving their military worth time and again, they continued to experience racial discrimination.

During World War I and World War II the Buffalo Soldiers became the segregated 92nd Infantry Division (92nd Division, WWI). The Buffalo soldiers during World War I were mostly relegated to defending the Mexican border.

During World War II the Buffalo Soldiers 92nd Infantry Division was the only African-American infantry division that participated in combat in Europe the other units were used as support. The all-Black 92nd Infantry Division was part of the U.S. Fifth Army fighting in the Italian Campaign to the war's end in 1944.

"Buffalo Soldiers Song"