Black Cadet in a White Bastion: Charles Young at West Point

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In most respects, this is a history of the life of a generic West Point cadet in the 's, with occasional remarks on Young and speculation about how a black cadet would take things. Granted, the sources available say little about Young directly, but this is a weaker book than the volume on his post-graduation Army career.

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For three years, he served as an expert adviser to the Liberian government and also took a direct role in supervising construction of the country's infrastructure. In Young published The Military Morale of Nations and Races, a remarkably prescient study of the cultural sources of military power. He argued against the prevailing theories of the fixity of racial character, using history and social science to demonstrate that even supposedly servile or un-military races such as Negroes and Jews displayed martial virtues when fighting for democratic societies.

Thus the key to raising an effective mass army from among a polyglot American people was to link patriotic service with fulfillment of the democratic promise of equal rights and fair play for all.

Young's book was dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt , and invoked the principles of Roosevelt's "New Nationalism". While leading a cavalry pistol charge against Pancho Villa 's forces at Agua Caliente 1 April , he routed the opposing forces without losing a single man. Because of his exceptional leadership of the 10th Cavalry in the Mexican theater of war, Young was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in September He was assigned as commander of Fort Huachuca , the base in Arizona of the Tenth Cavalry, nicknamed the "Buffalo Soldiers", until mid However, there was widespread resistance among white officers, especially those from the segregated South, who did not want to be outranked by an African American.

A lieutenant who served under Young complained [ clarification needed ] to the War Department, and Secretary of War Newton Baker replied that he should "either do his duty or resign. The President overruled Baker's decision and had the lieutenant transferred. In , Southern-born Wilson had segregated federal offices and established discrimination in other ways. Other white officers in the 10th Cavalry became encouraged to apply for transfers as well.

Brian G. Shellum

However, Baker realized that if Young were allowed to fight in Europe with black troops under his command, he would be eligible for promotion to brigadier general , and it would be impossible not to have white officers serving under him. The War Department instead removed Young from active duty, claiming it was due to his high blood pressure.

In May Young appealed to Theodore Roosevelt for support of his application for reinstatement.

Roosevelt was then in the midst of his campaign to form a "volunteer division" for early service in France in World War I. Roosevelt appears to have planned to recruit at least one and perhaps two black regiments for the division, something he had not told President Wilson or Secretary of War Baker.

He immediately wrote to Young offering him command of one of the prospective regiments, saying "there is not another man [besides yourself] who would be better fitted to command such a regiment. However, Wilson refused Roosevelt permission to organize his volunteer division. Young returned to Wilberforce University, where he was a professor of military science through most of While Young was on a reconnaissance mission in Nigeria in late , he suddenly became debilitatingly ill. Young died of a kidney infection at the British hospital in Lagos on January 8, Because his death took place in a British hospital, his body was required to be buried in Lagos where it remained for an entire year.

Charles Young received honors through his life. Later on in , he was elected as an honorary member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. This started in , immediately following his death when his obituary appeared in The New York Times , demonstrating his national reputation and also his funeral being one of few held at the Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery , where he was buried in Section 3. This school, one of the earlier schools in the US serving African Americans, was open between and In the park was rededicated Col.

Seven years after his death, another school was named in his honor; Charles E. It was the first elementary school in Northeast D. However, it was closed in Along with the legacy from acknowledgements and awards, Young has also taken on a presence in African-American art and literature.

Notably, a painting by J. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about the United States Army officer. For other uses of the name, see Charles Young disambiguation.

University of Nebraska, , pp. Black Cadet in a White Bastion: Charles Young at West Point. U of Nebraska Press. Black cadet in a white bastion: The Crisis Publishing Company, Inc.: For Race and Country: For race and country: Center of Military History. University of Nebraska, , p. Campbell, Songs of Zion , New York: Oxford University Press, , p. Archived from the original on Presidio of San Francisco. Retrieved 7 December The New York Times. Retrieved 16 May A fuller account is in Richard Slotkin, Lost Battalions: National Park Service ".

Charles Young (United States Army)

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