West Point General Young

In 1881, as Charles Young graduated with academic honors at the top of Ripley's integrated high school, he read an oration titled quotLet There Be Light.quot Two years after graduation, Young took the West Point entrance exam, and on June 10, 1884, became only the ninth African-American to attend the academy.

Brigadier General Charles Young was a distinguished army officer, cartographer, teacher, and soldier-diplomat who pioneered the entrance of African-Americans into fields that were previously closed to them. He was born in Mayslick, Kentucky on March 12, 1864, one year before the end of the Civil War. After his graduation from West Point in

Undersecretary of the Army Gabe Camarillo hosted a posthumous honorary ceremony to promote Col. Charles Young to brigadier general at the United States Military Academy at West Point on April 29

COLONEL CHARLES D. YOUNG US Army, Retired Deceased COL Young was an African-American Cavalry officer who held important intelligence assignments in the early years of the 20th Century. An 1889 graduate of West Point, Young was only the third black officer to graduate from Military Academy, and the only one of the

Charles Young, the first Black US Army colonel whose groundbreaking military career was hampered a century ago by the racism of the era, was posthumously promoted on Friday to brigadier general.

After graduating from West Point in 1889, Lieutenant Young served with the 9th U.S. Cavalry, one of the original quotBuffalo Soldierquot regiments, on the Western frontier. 2021, he was honorably and posthumously promoted to Brigadier General. BG Charles Young's legacy as a military leader and trailblazer in American history continues to

A White classmate of Young's, Major General Charles D. Rhodes, later reported that it was a practice of Young to converse with some of the servants at West Point in German to maintain some human interaction. 15 Toward the end of his five-year stay at West Point, the merciless discrimination and taunts decreased. 16

No definitive record remains as to why Young chose West Point, knowing the challenges he would face as a Black cadet. Still, a combination of his father's military service, West Point's reputation as one of the top educational institutions in the country, and free tuition are likely factors. Harrison, Dontavian. quotCol. Charles Young

Rear view of Colonel Charles Young's tomb at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. An Ohioan who graduated from West Point, rose to the rank of Colonel, taught at Wilberforce University, and

In 1883, Charles Young's father encouraged him to take the entrance examination to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Young scored the second highest on the exam and was not selected to the Academy that year. When the candidate ahead of him dropped out of West Point, Young would receive his opportunity the following year. He