Remembering the ‘Buffalo Soldiers’ Who Died To Spark the American Century
Lieutenant John J. ‘Black Jack’ Pershing said the Buffalo Soldiers ‘fought their way into the hearts of the American people’ at a key moment in the Spanish-American War.

As Americans mark Memorial Day, 26 Black men — members of the U.S. Army’s all-Black military units, known as “Buffalo Soldiers” — deserve commemoration. By answering President Theodore Roosevelt’s call to charge at a critical moment in the Spanish-American War when many white regulars refused to follow a volunteer officer, they helped propel him and his distant cousin, President Franklin Roosevelt, to greatness.
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