Buffalo Soldier exhibit highlights role

of black service members in Philippine-

American War

Group Photo - Officers and men also called "Buffalo Soldiers" of the U.S. Army's all-
black 9th Calvary Regiment take a group photo prior to deploying from San
Francisco to participate in combat operations in the Philippine-American War. Photo
Courtesy of U.S. Army Center of Military History
February 23, 2017
By Justin K. Thomas

Photos and illustrations illuminating the lives of Buffalo Soldiers during the Philippine-
American War are currently on display in Swem Librarys Botetourt Gallery as part of
an exhibit organized by the William & Mary Asian & Pacific Islander American
Studies program.

Hidden Virginia History: The Connection between the Buffalo Soldiers and the
Philippines will be on display until May 15.
The exhibit is a collaboration between the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities,
Norfolk State University, the Filipino American National Historical Society Hampton
Roads Chapter and W&M to promote the actions of African-American service
members or Buffalo Soldiers participating in combat operations in
the Philippines between 1899 and 1902. Research, writing and fabrication for the
exhibit was conducted by members of the Filipino American Historical Society
Hampton Roads Chapter led by Dr. April T. Manalang of Norfolk State University. The
lead historian for the project was Jeffrey Acosta an adjunct instructor of U.S. History at
Tidewater Community College and vice president of FANHS-HR chapter.

We are thrilled to welcome this exhibit into the library, said Carrie Cooper, dean of
university libraries. It is especially timely as the university is preparing to mark the
50th anniversary of African-American residential students.

The Philippine-American War

Following its defeat in the Spanish-American War of 1898, Spain relinquished the
control of its colonies located in the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico to the United
States at the Treaty of Paris on Dec. 10, 1898. In the following year, Filipino
nationalists under the leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo sought independence from their
colonial rulers, according to Francis Tanglao-Aguas, professor of theatre and Asian
and Pacific Islander American studies. On February 4, 1899, the U.S. government
ordered the U.S. military to conduct combat operations against the Filipino soldiers.
According to the U.S. Department of State, the war lasted three years and resulted in
the death of over 4,200 American and over 20,000 Filipino combatants with as many
as 200,000 Filipino civilians dying from violence, disease and famine.

According to official records of the Presidio of San Francisco, the military garrison
charged with housing companies from black infantry units before deployment to the
island nation, many black leaders and black-owned newspapers like the Indianapolis
Freeman supported the inclusion of African-American soldiers in the war.

However, the records also state that many prominent African-American political
activists of that time like Ida B. Wells-Bartlett condemned Americas government as
hypocritical for using black soldiers as tools to enlarge its territory. Negroes should
oppose expansion until the government was able to protect the Negro at home, Wells-
Bartlett said in an account to the Cleveland Gazette in January 1899.
But according to Acosta, as the war raged on the island, the U.S. Army had to shift its
military strategy to face counter-insurgency tactics conducted by Filipino soldiers. The
Filipinos fighters used methods like blending in with the civilian populace and directed
quick attack skirmishes against patrolling U.S. Army infantry units. Filipino
revolutionaries noted the black soldiers ability to adapt to the new mission parameters,
and therefore the Filipinos had a different opinion of their American adversaries with
darker skin, said Acosta.

Filipinos had a mixed view towards African American soldiers based on researched
history provided by the accounts of Filipino soldiers and civilians, he said. African
Americans did not share the racial prejudice of their white counterparts towards
Filipinos in that war. But, Filipino soldiers did notice that the black soldiers fighting
were at times relentless in their pursuit of Emilio Aguinaldos army of the 1 st Philippine
Republic.

Turning point
Although African-Americans have served in the U.S. military since the Revolutionary
War in some form, Acosta noted that the Philippine-American War was quite possibly
the critical turning point for future military service of African-Americans.

The U.S. Army began to commission black officers from the ranks of the enlisted who
had distinguished records. Acosta said that the level of success and aggressiveness of
African-American soldiers in the Philippines was dependent on the quality of their
leaders. Of those leaders to be commissioned, one later became the U.S. militarys
first African-American general officer, said Acosta.

Benjamin O. Davis Sr. was one of these men, he said. Davis Sr. was the first
African-American promoted to the rank of major general in the history of the United
States Army. His son, Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. went on to become an officer in the U.S.
Army Air Corps and helped to establish the Tuskegee Airmen who flew and fought with
distinction during World War II. Davis Jr. retired at the rank of lieutenant general in the
U.S. Air Force in 1965, but was advanced to full general by former President Bill
Clinton in 1998.

However, if it had not been for influential black journalists and African-American
newspapers such as The Richmond Planet, the world may have never known more
about the Buffalo Soldiers sacrifices and contributions to U.S. and Filipino history,
according to Acosta.
The hardest part of our research was identifying African-American soldiers from
Virginia who fought in this war, he said. But if it had not been for John Mitchell, Jr.,
the publisher of the Planet who published letters written to his newspaper by black
soldiers serving in the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American and Philippine-
American Wars, we may have never known what truly went on. The hunt for and
locating of primary and secondary source materials concerning Americans and
Filipinos who participated in the Philippine-American War was the most rewarding
aspect of this project.

Acosta stated that all soldiers of the six all-black regiments serving in the Philippines
came from every state in the union, but he pointed out that Captain William A.
Hankins, Private Rienzi Lemus, and chief musician Walter H. Loving came from
Virginia and helped set the bar for future black soldiers to achieve.

Lemus became a prominent African American labor leader as the president of the
Brotherhood of Dining-Car Employees and co-leader of Dining Car Cooks and Waiters
Association after he left the army, he said. Hankins went on to become the co-
founder of the all-African American Mechanics Savings Bank of Richmond, Virginia in
1901. And Loving helped organized the Philippine Constabulary Band that went on to
tour the world.

Tanglao-Aguas believes that the exhibit will help bring light to the experience of
African-Americans during the war, which is often overlooked in the American narrative.

Seeing that Buffalo Soldiers were used in helping to grow the very same nation that
did not even treat them with equal protection under the law is worth examining,
particularly at this current moment when we see the leveraging or weighing of
American citizenship based on religion, race or nationality, This analysis is at the
forefront of what we explore with our students in Asian & Pacific Islander American
studies, as well as Africana studies.