A new monument to the Buffalo Soldiers will be dedicated at Veterans Memorial Park in Tampa on Saturday, Aug. 29.
They were all-Black segregated units of the U.S. Army from the 1860s until the last of them were disbanded in the 1950s.
And like much of United States history, they have ties to Tampa.
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The Buffalo Soldiers in Tampa
About 30,000 troops arrived in Tampa to leave for Cuba in the Spanish-American War in April 1898. The 24th and 25th Infantry were camped in Tampa Heights, and thousands of Buffalo Soldiers were camped all over the Tampa Bay area, Fred Hearns, curator of Black History at the Tampa Bay History Center, told WUSF host Matthew Peddie on a recent “Florida Matters Live & Local.”
But they encountered resistance from some of the white residents locally, as was common during the Jim Crow period when state and local laws enforced racial segregation.
“Some of the white soldiers resented their presence here, and there were actual physical clashes between some of the Buffalo Soldiers here in Tampa and some of the white soldiers who had never seen Black men who were in the military — who were trained, who were armed, who were brave, who did not back down — and there was an actual battle between some of these white and Black soldiers here in Tampa before they even left for Cuba,” Hearns said.
“You have to remember, Jim Crow racism was alive and well in the 1890s, and we are part of the Deep South, so it did happen here in Tampa."
Hearns said spite of that, these Buffalo Soldiers received five commendations for their bravery in Cuba, San Juan Hill, and other locations.
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The last Buffalo Soldier units disbanded in the 1950s under President Harry Truman, and in 1992, President George Bush proclaimed the first National Buffalo Soldiers Day to honor the service of all-Black Army regiments.
In 1998, 100 years after their arrival in Tampa, University of South Florida anthropologist Brent Weisman and some of his students did a historic dig where they found several artifacts as proof that the Buffalo Soldiers camped in Tampa Heights, and so a historic monument was erected at Columbus Drive and Central Avenue.
How did they get their name?
At the end of the Civil War in 1866, when the Buffalo Soldiers were formed, many of them were sent out west where they came in contact with Native Americans.
“The Native Americans had much respect for these soldiers and their tenacity as warriors, and so they said that they reminded them of the fighting spirit of the buffaloes, and so the Native Americans gave them that name, the Buffalo Soldiers. It stuck,” Hearns said.
A motorcycle club is keeping the history alive
In 1993, Kenneth 'Dream Maker' Thomas founded the Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club of Chicago in October 1993, “believing that it was time to establish a modern progressive motorcycle club whose focus was to promote a positive image among African Americans that would be respected in the community and throughout the country,” according to the National Association of Buffalo Soldiers and Troopers Motorcycle Club website.
The National Association of Buffalo Soldiers and Troopers Motorcycle Club was formed in 1999, and the club has grown to more than 120 chapters, including one in Florida.
During his time in the U.S. Navy, Donald "D-Roc'' Williams, president of the Tampa Chapter of the National Association of Buffalo Soldiers and Troopers Motorcycle Club, didn’t know much about the Buffalo Soldiers.
“Then when I got out of the military and came back to Tampa, I saw the club riding one day, and it was about 25 of them,” Williams said. “I was like, ‘wow!’ I stopped them and talked to them, and then when I talked to them and found out some more about the history and the club, I said, ‘OK, I've got to be a part of this.’”
Williams said during his first military duty station at Fort Sill, a major United States Army post north of Lawton, Oklahoma, his unit visited the sites where Gerónimo was captured and imprisoned after 25 years.
The military leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe Apache people led numerous raids against white settlements on tribal lands acquired by the U.S. during the Mexican-American War in 1854.
“We saw where Gerónimo stayed, where he was in prison, the cell he was in, and so forth. And I never knew it was the Buffalo Soldiers who captured
Gerónimo," Williams said. "Even though I was at Fort Sill, I didn't learn that two years later that they were very instrumental in his capture. So a lot of the history is not told.”
David "Duba-D’ Austin, secretary of the club, said new members are required to learn the history they likely weren’t taught in school.
“So once we bring someone into the organization, they'll come in as a probationary status, and during that process, there's a big requirement to learn the history of the Buffalo Soldiers to be able to communicate that history and share it with the community,” he said.
The club also does charitable work and gives out scholarships to students.
“This is something we need to continue to do because many of the young folks who need this information, they may not get it in the schools, but they can get it from the presence of the Buffalo Soldiers here in Tampa and throughout the United States,” Hearns said.
The unveiling of the new monument
Veteran Community Services and Hillsborough County leaders invite the community to help dedicate the new Buffalo Soldiers Monument on Saturday, Aug. 29 at 10 a.m. at Veterans Memorial Park & Rear Admiral LeRoy Collins, Jr. Veterans Museum at 3602 N. U.S. Highway 301 in Tampa.
A ceremony will be held at the outdoor amphitheater, followed by the official unveiling of the large bronze monument in the park. There will be light refreshments and fellowship following the monument unveiling.
Parking and admission are free, and the park and monuments will stay open until 5 p.m.
For more information about the event or Veterans Memorial Park & Rear Admiral LeRoy Collins, Jr. Veterans Museum, call Hillsborough County Veteran Community Services at (813) 635-8316 or visit HCFL.gov/Veterans.
This story was compiled from interviews conducted by Matthew Peddie for "Florida Matters Live & Local." You can listen to the full episode here.
