[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 60 (Thursday, March 28, 2013)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 18777-18782]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-07404]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 60 / Thursday, March 28, 2013 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 18777]]
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
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
[[Page 18778]]
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 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
[[Page 18779]]
in Lagos on January 8, 1922. In 1923, Colonel Charles
Young became only the 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 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
[[Page 18780]]
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.
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.
[[Page 18781]]
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.
(Presidential Sig.)
Billing code 3295-F3
[[Page 18782]]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TD28MR13.009
[FR Doc. 2013-07404
Filed 3-27-13; 8:45 am]
Billing code 4310-10-C