Wednesday, January 24, 2001

Fayette County students in February will learn about many African-American heroes who have made history in the United States, during Black History Month.

Whitewater Middle School students will learn about a little-known part of black history, the Buffalo soldiers.

In July 1866, shortly after the Civil War, Congress passed legislation establishing two cavalry and four infantry regiments, whose enlisted composition was to be made up of African-Americans. Most of the recruits had served in black units during the war.

Mounted regiments were the ninth and tenth cavalries, soon nicknamed Buffalo soldiers by the Cheyenne and Comanche tribes. Until the early 1890s, they constituted 20 percent of cavalry forces on the American frontier.

In addition to helping defend the Western frontier against hostile native tribes and outlaws, Buffalo soldiers also mapped vast areas of the Southwest and strung hundreds of miles of telegraph lines.

Storyteller Calvin Sims will bring the ninth and tenth cavalries to life for students sa he recounts true stories. Dressed in period attire, he tells the stories of heroes that most people have never heard of, such as Henry O. Flipper, the first black graduate of West Point and leader of the Buffalo units. William Cathy, the Buffalo soldier who pretended to be a man to escape gender discrimination, also is included.

Sims will be at Whitewater Feb. 14. His program will begin around 9:30 a.m. in the gym.

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