Genoa Barrow | OBSERVER Senior Staff Writer
Getting to the spot where famed Buffalo soldier leader Charles Young is memorialized in Sequioa National Park requires travel on a considerable stretch of winding road that passes through breathtaking examples of nature and tranquility.
““He built all of this,” shared local historian Michael Harris who journeyed to the vast park to participate in a celebration of Young’s legacy. Held on July 28, National Buffalo Soldier’s Day, the event was highlighted by the rededication of a large tree named after the pioneering military man.
Young was posthumously promoted from colonel to brigadier general in November 2021, prompting the need for the signs inside the park to be changed.
“It should have happened a lifetime ago and it finally did,” said great nephew Lawrence Young of the bump in rank.
Charles Young was born a slave in 1864 in Kentucky and rose to the status of the highest ranking Black officer in the U.S. Army. In 1889, having graduated from West Point with a commission as a second lieutenant – the third African American to do so – he served with the Ninth U.S. Cavalry Regiment for 28 years protecting settlers and pioneers in the westward expansion of the United States.
Young and his all-Black troop helped build the roads that allowed for tourism in Sequoia National Park. Completion of the new roads allowed wagons to enter the area for the first time and cars soon followed, opening up unprecedented opportunities for tourism and conservation.
“In early 1903 the current road from Highway 198 to the giant forest did not exist,” reads a kiosk near the Brigadier General Charles Young tree. “A group of soldiers with an outstanding leader came to these parks on assignment… their task was to develop and protect a new national park, a huge, rough landscape. The troopers, however, far exceeded all expectations. They left their legacy that both park and visitors benefit from today.”
Signage also acknowledges the challenges the troopers faced in doing the work over a century ago.
“They were Black men serving a country that had yet to live up to the ideal of the Gettysburg Address delivered by Lincoln 40 years earlier that all men are created equal,” it reads.
Young later served as a professor at Wilberforce College, a private coed college in Ohio affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, where he helped establish the military science department. After the Spanish-American War, then Col. Young was assigned duty at the San Francisco Presidio and was appointed superintendent to oversee the work of some of the first park rangers at Yosemite and Sequoia national parks.
Lawrence Young helps keep his ancestor’s legacy alive through the Brigadier General Charles Young Foundation, he runs with his sister Renotta.
“Think about what he went through and he believed in the ‘American dream,’ the ideals he stood for, the freedom, the ability to speak your mind, to express yourself, the believe in ‘equality for all’ in a time when oppression was commonplace, he lived his life at a higher level and that resonates with a lot of people,” he said.
At a time when Black history is being banned and erased across the country, the brigadier general’s descendants want more people to hear his story and be inspired by it.
“I want people to understand his legacy and understand why and how he lived his life and hopefully everyone will take something away from that and do something special that will leave the world a better place,” Young said.
Other attendees also have family connections to the Buffalo Soldier experience.
“My father was an original Buffalo soldier,” said Jones, who attended the ceremony dressed in the group’s signature black and gold colors.
Jones, who was also in attendance when the Charles Young tree was first dedicated 20 years ago, is a historical reenactor and belongs to the 9th and 10 Infantry Calvary Association.
“It was created by the last of the Buffalo Soldiers after World War II, so we’re just keeping that story alive,” he said.
The ceremony, unveiling and other activities leading up to them were particularly meaningful for Dorian Yarnelson, an illustrator and parks enthusiast. Although Yarnelson’s maternal grandfather, Harold Yancy, died when he was a child, the older man sparked his interest in the Buffalo Soldiers history.
“It was extremely important to him,” Yarnelson said. “He was in the Army when it was still segregated…It means the world for me to be here.”
Today, Yarnelson works for the state parks system, ironically spending a lot of time at a state park named after another Black colonel, Allen Allensworth.
Also participating in the day’s events were Col. Lane A. Bomar and First Sgt. Nigel Norvell, two African American men who are enjoying their own storied careers with the U.S. Army thanks to trailblazing “giants” like Charles Young.
“I have personally reached the rank of colonel due to the ones who came before me,” said Col. Bomar, who serves as Fort Irwin’s garrison commander. “Their examples stand past their lifetimes and serve as a vision for future generations.”
Harris, chair of the California Buffalo Soldiers Project, agrees.
“National Buffalo Soliders Day is a special time to honor all those who served since 1866 in the U.S. Army. Brigadier General Charles Young remains the standard and example for the past, present and future.”
Harris was acknowledged during the ceremony, having supported Renotta Young and Robert Hanna, the grandson of another California icon, early environmentalist John Muir, in their efforts to have Highway 198 renamed Col. Charles Young Highway.
Harris, who attended that sign dedication in 2019, has been urging lawmakers to take action in changing it to reflect Young’s change in rank. Young, Harris says, dedicated his life and career to “forming a more perfect union” and deserves full recognition.
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Superintendent Clay Jordan is hoping to reach and encourage diverse audiences to visit state parks and says the honor for Charles Young is part of a larger goal of increasing, expanding and diversifying cultural interpretation throughout state parks.
“We are using this event as a platform to reinvigorate the Buffalo Soldiers story and the Charles Young story, moving forward to make sure we do it justice into the future,” Jordan said.
Park admission was bypassed for all who entered “the giant forest” on National Buffalo Soldiers Day. Harris wanted that free access to come with education and acknowledgement.
“They should be telling people why it’s free today,” he said as staffers waved people through who expected to have to pay the usual $20 per person fee.
They told visitors that they didn’t have to pay, but largely failed to tell the mostly white visitors that they had Black people to thank for saving them money.
Small things have a giant impact, Harris says.