SAN ANGELO, Texas — The City of San Angelo has announced that Fort Concho, in collaboration with the San Angelo chapter of the NAACP, will host the annual Buffalo Soldier Heritage Day on Sunday, Feb. 26, from 2-4 p.m. at the fort’s Commissary Building, located on East Avenue C and Burgess Street
The program, which will be free for all to attend, will include many speakers:
- Charles Young and Woody Woodard, living history presenters will speak on the history of the famed African American troops of the Western frontier.
- John Langellier, a scholar and author, will cover the story of the chaplains in the 1870s and 1880s who served the African American units in the West.
- Sherley Spears, the NAACP Buffalo Soldier Memorial Project founder, will provide an update on the work at the El Paseo de Santa Angela location.
- Lastly, fort staff will cover recent and future collections, acquisitions and exhibits planned on the buffalo soldiers.
Buffalo soldiers were African American soldiers of the regular Army who served mostly west of the Mississippi after the Civil War. Units of all four buffalo soldier regiments served at Fort Concho from 1869-1885 with the most famous unit, the 10th Cavalry, having its headquarters at the fort from 1875-1882. Over Fort Concho’s 22 active years, the buffalo soldiers comprised half of the post’s enlisted men.
