Charles Young Posthumously Promoted to Brigadier General

By Bro. Damon Scott

General Charles Young, a name that is well known by every brother of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. His name is so familiar, in part, because his life story is among the first things we learned during our time in the Lampados Club as we are seeking Omega.

We learn that part of Brigadier General Young’s story includes the fact that he was the first African American soldier promoted to the rank of colonel in the United States Army. We also learn that several years later, when he was potentially being considered for promotion to general, he was denied it because he was deemed not physically fit or healthy enough to have that honor bestowed upon him—a decision with which he vehemently disagreed. As an example and lesson in perseverance, we learn that to demonstrate his ability and physical fitness, he rode his horse from his home in Wilberforce, Ohio, all the way to Washington, DC, nearly 500 miles! His storied career is a testament to endurance and a well-respected part of the early history of the fraternity.

And over a century later, the story of this revered Omega Man continues to be told. The U.S. Armed Forces finally acknowledged the discrimination it forced him to endure while serving his country. In late 2021, approaching the 100th anniversary of Colonel Charles Young’s transition into Omega Chapter, the United States Army finally announced that he would be posthumously promoted to Brigadier General! This honor has been a long time coming, and it is fitting that the men of Omega Psi Phi take a moment to remember and honor his life’s journey.

Charles Young was born on March 12, 1864, to Gabriel Young and Arminta Bruen, who were enslaved in Mays Lick, Kentucky. The following year, Gabriel, his father, escaped from his captors and crossed the Ohio River to Ripley, Ohio. Ripley was considered the center of the abolitionist movement and served as one of the first stops on the Underground Railroad. There, he enlisted in the Fifth United States Colored Heavy Artillery Regiment close to the time that the Civil War was ending. Gabriel’s service to the war effort earned freedom for both himself and Arminta, who was already literate at that time.

Upon Gabriel’s honorable discharge in 1866, the young couple settled in Ripley with toddler Charles. They bought land and built a home with the bonus that Gabriel earned for his continued service after the war ended. As soon as Charles was of age, his parents enrolled him in school in Ripley. He was the only “colored” student in the all-white school. Regardless, Charles excelled in music and foreign languages. In 1880, at the age of 16, he graduated at the top of his class. He then taught in the new colored high school in Ripley, becoming a bridge builder between the youth and their education.

While he surely realized and appreciated the value he added as a teacher to the Ripley community, Charles knew he wanted more for himself as a young man. Accordingly, he made the decision, no doubt inspired by his father’s successful military example, to take the competitive examination for appointment as a cadet in the United States Military Academy at West Point. Charles achieved the second highest score on the exam. When the one candidate who scored the highest was not able to attend, Charles was given the opportunity to begin his military career and reported to West Point in 1884 at the age of 20.

At the time, there was only one other colored cadet who was a year ahead of Charles. The two of them were roommates for three years until the older cadet’s graduation. One of his engineering instructors was an assistant professor named George Washington Goethals—who took interest in Charles and began tutoring him. Goethals would later become known for directing construction of the Panama Canal.

Cadet Young unfortunately faced a great deal of racism and discrimination from his West Point classmates who ostracized him. It was so bad that he reportedly conversed in German, in which he was fluent, with some of the servant staff simply to maintain some form of human interaction. Eventually, toward the end of his time as a cadet, some of his classmates grew to respect him for his intellect and tenacity.

In 1889, five years after he began his West Point career, Charles Young graduated with his commission as a second lieutenant. He was only the third colored man to achieve that rank. His first assignment was with the Tenth U.S. Cavalry Regiment. He was reassigned to the Ninth U.S. Cavalry Regiment, where he served from 1889-1890 in Fort Robinson, Nebraska, and then from 1890-1894 in Fort Duchesne, Utah. There, he helped teach and direct the band. He also mentored then-Sergeant Major Benjamin O. Davis, Sr.—who would later become the first colored officer to attain the rank of general in the United States.

In 1894, Lieutenant Young accepted an assignment to manage the planning of, and eventual teaching at, the new military sciences department at Wilberforce College (now Wilberforce University) in Ohio—a historically black college/university (HBCU) that had received a special federal grant to establish the department. He spent four years as a professor on the college staff and also helped establish the Wilberforce College Marching Band. And it was there that he met and became close friends with another Wilberforce professor, William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois as well as with poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.

During this time, Lieutenant Young and his widowed mother purchased a large house (which he named “Youngsholm”) and its adjoining farmland in Wilberforce. The home served as a gathering place for many of the elite colored thinkers, performers, and leaders of the time. It was also a welcoming place for young people and members of the extended Young family. The town of Wilberforce, Ohio would become and remain the Lieutenant’s base of operation . . . the place where he established his home, mentored a successive generation of leaders, and found intellectual refuge.

Shortly after the Spanish-American War commenced in 1898, Lieutenant Young was temporarily promoted to the rank of Major of Volunteers so that he could command the Ninth Ohio Infantry Regiment—which was a colored unit. This marked the first time in United States history that an officer of color commanded a sizable unit in the Army. At the conclusion of the very short war, he returned to his previous rank of first lieutenant. Just over two years later, he was again promoted — this time to the rank of Captain with the Ninth Cavalry Regiment.

Captain Young’s first assignment was in command of a Negro company at the Presidio of San Francisco. During this time in U.S. history, the military supervised all national parks and the captain was appointed as acting superintendent of Sequoia National Park and Grant National Park—both near Fresno, California and making him the first colored superintendent of a U.S. national park. Under his leadership, road construction expanded making it possible to increase visitor access to the still-developing Sequoia National Park. Captain Young’s troops built a wagon road to the Giant Forest (known for the world’s largest trees) and also to Moro Rock — allowing the initial access to the mountaintop forest. At the end of his tenure as superintendent, he recommended that the U.S. government acquire more privately owned lands adjacent to Sequoia so that future generations would be able to access and enjoy more park land. His vision was eventually realized as the park expanded over the following decades.

It was during the time that he was assigned to the San Francisco Bay Area that he met Ms. Ada Mills — a young lady who caught his eye and to whom he proposed marriage. The couple exchanged wedding vows during a nuptial ceremony in February 1904, in Oakland, California. Soon thereafter, Mrs. Young relocated with her husband when he returned to his assignment in Ohio, and the couple lived in Youngsholm in Wilberforce.

Later that year, the U.S. Army founded its Military Intelligence Department and selected Captain Young as one of its first military attachés; he was assigned to serve in the Dominican Republic and Portau-Prince, Haiti. Two years later in Ohio, Ada gave birth to the couple’s first born in 1906, a son they named Charles Noel. In 1908, the Captain was reassigned to the Philippines with his Ninth Cavalry Regiment where he commanded two troop squadrons. The following year, while in the Philippines, Charles and Ada welcomed their second child, this time a daughter, Marie Aurelia.

By 1912, Captain Young had achieved another first; this time, it was as the first colored officer assigned as military attaché to Liberia. There, he served for three years advising the Liberian government, including directly supervising the country’s infrastructure construction. It was around this time that the leadership of a certain young organization, having observed the Captain’s career trajectory and accomplishments, made the decision to offer him honorary membership into the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. It was a major accolade for Charles Young, the first one bestowed by the Fraternity since that of Founder Dr. Ernest Everett Just.

By 1916, the Captain was promoted to Major Charles Young by the U.S. Army. That was the same year of the United States’ Punitive Expedition into Mexico, where the Major commanded the Second Squadron of the 10th Cavalry Regiment Buffalo Soldiers in a pistol charge against the notorious Mexican revolutionary Francisco “Pancho” Villa at Agua Caliente. It was reported that Major Young and his Buffalo Soldiers routed the opposing forces without losing a single man!

As a result of his exceptional bravery, courage, and leadership in the Mexican expedition, Charles Young was promoted once again, this time to Lieutenant Colonel. And it was yet again another first for him . . . the first colored soldier to achieve the rank of Colonel in the U.S. Army.

Later that year in 1916, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) awarded to Lieutenant Colonel Young its prestigious Spingarn Medal. This commendation is “awarded for the highest or noblest achievement in any honorable field,” according to the NAACP, which began awarding the medal in 1915. That year, the inaugural medal was bestowed upon Founder Just. Accordingly, the first two recipients of the Spingarn Medal were stalwart Omega Men.

His next promotion did not come without controversy and discrimination. In early 1917, the United States was preparing, inevitably, to enter the first World War. As a Lieutenant Colonel, Young was in good position to be promoted to Brigadier General. However, there was widespread resistance among white officers, especially those from the segregated south, who did not want to be outranked, nor be commanded, by a colored officer. There was pushback, not only within the military, but even among those in high ranking elected offices, including the U.S. Senate and the White House.

Accordingly, Secretary of War Newton Baker was pressured to figure out what to do with Lieutenant Colonel Young. The Secretary considered sending him to officer training camp for colored soldiers. However, that would mean if Young were to fight in Europe with colored soldiers under his command, then he would be eligible for promotion to Brigadier General, which would then make it impossible not to have white officers serving under him. Instead, he was again promoted, this time to full Colonel, and again becoming the first colored officer to reach that rank.

However, standard military practice required a medical examination before a promotion. As a result of his exam, medical staff found that he had high blood pressure and that his kidneys were likely damaged. But two military medical boards stated that those matters were not significant enough to prevent his continued service, and recommended that the experienced leader be allowed to fight in what was considered at the time to be America’s biggest conflict since the Civil War.

As opposed to following that recommendation, Secretary Baker recommended a medical retirement, making it apparent that now Colonel Young’s medical condition represented a convenient way to “solve the problem” of having him command white officers. Subsequently, the Colonel was temporarily placed on the inactive list. Civil rights organization like the NAACP fervently protested the decision.

Colonel Young even enlisted the aid of former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, who in his post-presidency, offered up his military experience to the government by proposing to organize a military volunteer formation of American citizens to fight for the Allies in France. Roosevelt reportedly had planned to recruit at least one or two colored regiments for the volunteer division and responded to Colonel Young offering him command of one of them. However, President Woodrow Wilson refused to give Roosevelt the permission he needed to move forward with any of his volunteer plans.

Accordingly, Colonel Young returned to Wilberforce College and resumed his teaching career as professor of military science. And it is during this time that he launched the effort that every Omega Man learns about during his time in the Lampados Club. To demonstrate his fitness for duty, Colonel Charles Young, at age 54, rode horseback, by himself, almost 500 miles from Wilberforce to Washington, DC in June 1918. And as a result, on November 6, 1918, less than two weeks prior to Omega celebrating her seventh Founders’ Day, Brother Charles Young was reinstated for military active duty as a Colonel. A fitting lesson in perseverance, endurance, and tenacity for any Omega Man!

The following year, Colonel Young spoke at the 8th Omega Grand Conclave in Boston in 1919. He delivered a speech he entitled “The Reconstruction” to an audience of 10,000, consisting of Omega Men, their families, dignitaries, and guests. In addition to having the honor of the Colonel address the attendees, the Conclave itself was a milestone, as it was the first in a location outside of Washington, DC hosted by Alpha Chapter, or Oxford, PA hosted by Beta Chapter at Lincoln University. Boston was now the home of Gamma, the expanding fraternity’s third chapter, chartered in late 1916.

Colonel Young was next dispatched to Camp Grant in Illinois to train more colored servicemen. And shortly after that assignment, the State Department requested that he once again serve as a military attaché to Liberia; he arrived there in February 1920. While there, he led a reconnaissance team to Lagos, Nigeria in late 1921. During that mission, he became gravely ill and had to seek medical treatment at a British hospital. Diagnosed with kidney inflammation and infection, Colonel Charles Young succumbed to the illness and died from Bright’s disease, transitioning to Omega Chapter on January 8, 1922, at the age of 57.

Due to his death occurring in a British medical facility, British law required that his body be buried in Lagos, where it stayed for an entire year. During that ensuing year, Mrs. Ada Young lobbied the U.S. government to have her husband’s remains be repatriated to the United States so that he could receive a proper military funeral, befitting an officer of his rank, and buried in American soil.

After the year passed, Colonel Young’s body was finally exhumed and transported back to the states. Upon arrival in New York in late May 1923, the Colonel received a hero’s welcome. Large crowds of thousands of people celebrated his life and long, accomplished military career. His obituary was printed in the New York Times, a testament to his reputation as a national hero.

On June 1, 1923, Colonel Charles Young became only the fourth soldier honored with a full military funeral at Arlington Memorial Amphitheater. His friend, W.E.B. Du Bois, spoke at the service, profoundly stating that “the life of Charles Young was a triumph of tragedy.” Afterwards, he was buried alongside thousands of other heroes at Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac River from the capital of the nation he so faithfully and dutifully served. His final resting place in Section 3 is marked by a large tombstone that bears his name, military rank, and year of his birth and death on one side, with “Young” on the opposite side.

To honor and pay tribute to this son of Omega, the Fraternity conducts its Annual Memorial Service in remembrance of all Omega Men who have entered Omega Chapter on the Colonel’s birthday, March 12th.

Since his death, Colonel Young’s legacy has been honored throughout the United States. In 1925, a Louisville school in Kentucky, the state of his birth, was renamed the Charles Young School which educated African American students for over eight decades. Years later when it was closed and demolished, a city park was constructed in its place and dedicated as the Colonel Charles Young Park. And in 1929, Charles Young Elementary School in Washington, was among the first built to serve the city’s predominantly African American neighborhoods of Northeast DC.

Mrs. Ada Young passed away in 1953 and was laid to rest with her husband in Arlington. Almost 20 years after her death, their family home where the young military officer lived while teaching at Wilberforce College, was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1974 in recognition of Colonel Young’s historic importance.

The existence of the Young home was the most visible and prominent testament to the Colonel’s legacy. During the 1980s, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity brothers of Mu Chi, a graduate chapter located in Wilberforce, became involved in the local efforts to preserve the Young home under its landmark status. At that time, Chapter Basileus, Brother Dr. James Elam (Omega Chapter), invited Grand officers to visit Wilberforce for a tour of the property.

During that visit, Brother Elam advocated for the Fraternity to purchase the property. He was so passionate about the matter that he provided significant financial support toward the eventual purchase of the home and the 90 acres of land surrounding the property. Omega funded rehabilitation work on the home, in partnership with the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center on the campus of Central State University. The college is across the street from Wilberforce University and both are within a mile from the Young home.

To help bring life back to it, Mu Chi held chapter meetings in the house and helped the Fraternity maintain the property for a number of years until the decision was made to sell it to the National Park Service so that it could be renovated and preserved for future use. The Fraternity's purchase and preliminary restoration of the home were instrumental in preserving Colonel Young’s legacy. And that would not have been possible without the efforts of Mu Chi Chapter and Brother Elam. His leadership and personal financial commitment were instrumental in ensuring the Colonel Young home eventually would be restored to its former prominence.

The brothers of Upsilon Chapter have always felt very much privileged to have had Colonel Young affiliated with Wilberforce University during his tenure as a professor in the military sciences department at the school. And likewise, Omega’s Fourth District is equally honored that the town of Wilberforce, Ohio is the location of his home, as well as proud of Mu Chi Chapter’s role in helping to restore and preserve its status as a historical landmark.

Toward the end of the first decade of the 21st Century, the United States elected its first African American President, Barack Obama, who, in 2013 during his second term in office, used the U.S. Antiquities Act to designate Youngsholm as the 401st unit of the National Park System. It is now known as the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument (the Monument) and houses artifacts from his personal life and military career, as well as some artifacts honoring the Buffalo Soldiers. Above the front door entrance to the home, there is a full color, ledglass window pane bearing the Omega Escutcheon to honor and signify his membership in the Fraternity.

In October 2021, the National Park System temporarily closed the Monument to begin a restoration and renovation project that should last for about 15 months; it is scheduled to reopen in early 2023. All of the artifacts inside, as well as the educational services offered there, have been relocated to the Payne Theological Seminary campus library, which sits between Central State and the Monument.

Another honor came, befittingly on Veteran’s Day, November 11, 2019, after the state of California passed legislation to rename the eastern section of State Route 198 as the Colonel Charles Young Memorial Highway, which travels through Sequoia National Park where he served as the first African American Park Superintendent. Brothers of Omega’s 12th District worked in collaboration with the Colonel Charles Young Foundation, which is chaired by Ms. Renotta Young, the Colonel’s great niece, to spearhead a letter writing campaign to the California State Assembly.

Starting in 2018, the Men of Omega wrote more than 100 letters, some of which were from Brothers who are retired military veterans and some from those still in active duty, in support of Assembly Concurrent Resolution (ACR) 142, which proposed the renaming project. The culminating event occurred six days prior to Founders’ Day 2019, when several brothers, including then Executive Director Brother Kenneth Barnes, then 12th District Representative Brother Dennis Martinez, and future 12th District Representative Brother Kwame Dow, were present during the dedication and renaming of the highway, which also included the unveiling of newly erected signage bearing the Colonel’s name.

Throughout the last several decades of Colonel Young posthumously receiving well deserved honors and recognition for his service to his country, there were many organizations and individuals who held the position that while those efforts were appreciated, this American hero still deserved more. Descendants in the Young family, as well as several administrations of Omega Psi Phi leadership, were steadfast in their campaign for Colonel Young to receive the promotion that he deserved in the latter years of his military service career.

And finally, that advocacy has not been in vain. It started to gain traction in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the Colonel’s birthplace, where Governor Andy Beshear, in his capacity as commander in chief of the Kentucky National Guard, posthumously promoted Colonel Young to the honorary rank of Brigadier General in Kentucky in 2020. The governor then wrote a letter to President Joseph Biden encouraging him to do the same in the U.S. Army.

Subsequently, on October 6, 2021, Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth approved the honorary promotion which was effective November 1, 2021. In a statement confirming the promotion, the Secretary said Colonel Young’s career “broke new ground time and again,” and acknowledged that “discriminatory practices not only held him back, but forced him into retirement.” Yet, she expressed her pride that “the Army has redressed that wrong with a long overdue posthumous, honorary, promotion.” The Young family, as well as the Fraternity, were officially notified in January 2022.

According to Undersecretary of the Army Gabe Camarillo, “Charles Young was a soldier, an intellectual, a civil rights pioneer, and a man who loved his family deeply. When I think of Charles Young, the word triumph comes to mind. He faced unjust and harrowing circumstances that tested him time and time again, but he triumphed.”

On Friday, April 29, 2022, at the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, a ceremony was held to posthumously and officially promote Colonel Charles Young to BRIGADIER GENERAL CHARLES YOUNG! The venue was befitting, given his graduation there as only the third African American commissioned officer more than a century ago.

Based on his advocacy of the promotion on behalf of Omega Psi Phi, 41st Grand Basileus Dr. David E. Marion was invited to attend the ceremony. The Grand Basileus had met and corresponded with three separate Secretaries of the Army to enthusiastically state the Fraternity’s support of the promotion. And he enlisted the support of three Omega Men who serve in the United States House of Representatives; Majority Whip Congressman James Clyburn, Congressman Kweisi Mfume, and Congressman Hank Johnson, all of whom wrote letters of support to the Army.

Just prior to the ceremony, Grand Basileus Dr. Marion stated that “It took a lot of energy and effort, and Omega appreciates all the efforts of the brothers around the country, as well as those outside the Fraternity, who helped make this happen.” The Grand Basileus also has thanked Omega Men in the U.S. Army for their advocacy, including particularly, Chief Warrant Officer Jacques Nixon (2013 Beta Chi), who serves as Assistant Executive Officer to Secretary Wormuth, and Lieutenant General Scottie Dingle (1985 Pi), the Surgeon General of the Army, who quietly navigated Omega’s request through the Army’s hierarchy to completion.

Lieutenant General Darryl Williams, USMA Superintendent, shared “We remember Colonel Charles Young as a leader of character who lived honorably, led honorably, and demonstrated excellence in all his endeavors. He holds an honored place on West Point’s Long Gray Line and still inspires generations of soldiers and officers today as an exemplar of Army values and the West Point ideals of duty, honor, and country.”

So, moving forward, when men who are seeking Omega learn about her history, they now will learn about the perseverance, endurance, and tenacity of BRIGADIER GENERAL CHARLES YOUNG!