Colonel Charles Young was born March 12, 1864 and died January 8, 1922. Colonel Young was born into slavery in Kentucky. His farther later fled to freedom in and join the Union Army. Young was the first black colonel and made a career of breaking down barriers in the segregated U.S. Army. Colonel Young leaded black and white troops during World War I. He was one of the few men that have graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He was the third African-American to graduate when he earned his degree in 1889. He had served in Cuba, the Philippines, Haiti, and Mexico. A lot of white soldiers complained about taking orders from a black man. Military authorities forced Young to retire by claiming he had high blood pressure. Young wanted to prove that he was in good health, that he rode a horse from his home in Xenia, Ohio, to Washington, D.C. Young remained on the retired list until he was given command of a training unit in Illinois five days before the war ended. After having a stable career young married Ada Mills in February of 1904. The both of them had two children Charles and Marie.
Young was the highest ranking African-American commanding officer in the United States Army from 1864 until he died. Young also served as the first African-American superintendent of national park now known as the “Kings Canyon”. He also commanded a troop of Buffalo Soldiers in the years before the creation of the National Park Service. Under Young leadership, the buffalo soldiers kept the park free from poachers, and from the ranchers whose grazing sheep destroyed the parks natural habitats. Before Young there were no superintendents that ever serve more than two consecutive summers resulted in barley any roads in within the park. No superintendent before Young was able to get his soldiers to complete the first wagon road into the Giant Forest of Sequoia, which are the largest trees in the world. Young first property as...