Charles Young

Lieutenant Charles Young replaced Alexander as PMST at Wilberforce in 1894. He grew up in Ripley, Ohio, and graduated from high school at the age of 16. After teaching in the high school, Young was appointed to West Point military academy. While there he suffered from the prejudice and discrimination that caused other Black officer candidates to be dropped from the Academy. Nevertheless, he persevered and received his commission. Nearly half a century would pass before another African American would graduate from West Point.

Prior to his Wilberforce assignment, Young served with the 10th Cavalry and the 25th Infantry. He was always striving to prove that his men were exceptional in discipline, drill and combat. He wanted to disprove the disparaging remarks made about Black despite a clear record of outstanding performance. Some of his men complained that he was too hard on them. Most of his troops revered him for the continually proved to be an exceptional leader in training and combat.

At Wilberforce, Charles Young taught military science and tactics, French, German, mathematics, and geology, and he organized the ROTC band. Young left Wilberforce in 1896 and commanded troops in the Philippines during the Spanish American War. He became the first African American superintendent of the Nation Parks, and the first to be appointed a military attaché, serving in Haiti and Liberia. In 1916 Young played a prominent role in the “Punitive Expedition” in pursuit of Pancho Villa.

To celebrate Charles Young’s promotion to major, his friends in Wilberforce gave him a saber in 19__.

Charles Young’s family home in Wilberforce, Ohio was built in the 1850’s and may have served as roadside inn. It was purchased by a Southern planter for his mixed-race children and their previously enslaved mother. At that time it became a station on the Underground Railroad. Charles Young purchased the home in ____ and his family lived there for many years. The home has been rehabilitated by Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., and is to be the site of a new museum on African American military history.

Despite his exceptional record and the great need for experienced officers in World War I, Colonel Young was involuntarily retired from active service. President Woodrow Wilson had written to the Secretary of the Army to express his concern that White officers would refuse to serve under a Black commander. Young was sent to an Army hospital and reported to be physically unfit for active duty. Historian Bernard Naulty has written, “This outstanding officer almost certainly would have become the Army’s first black general had he not be placed on the retired list in 1917, ostensibly because of ill health. To demonstrate the absurdity of this claim, he rode horseback from his home in Ohio to Washington, D.C., but to no avail. He was not restored to duty until immediately before the armistice, when the possibility of his becoming a general had passed.” Though bitterly disappointed that he was not permitted to engage the enemy in Europe because of racism and bigotry at home, Young aggressively supported the war effort.

In 1919 Young returned to Liberia. While conducting research in Nigeria he became ill and died in 1922. His body was returned to the United States and laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. American Legion Chapters across the country were named in his honor.