West Point finally honored the Buffalo Soldiers with a bronze statue monument on Sept. 10 in West Point, New York, according to The Washington Post. The Buffalo Soldiers was an all-Black regiment that taught white cadets horsemanship in the early 1900s.
The bronze statue was made in the likeness of Staff Sgt. Sanders H. Matthews Sr. and is the first statue of a Black man at the military academy. Sgt. Matthews was the last known Buffalo Soldier to serve at the military academy. The monument is a bronze statue of Matthews riding a horse on top of a granite foundation engraved with a description. He passed away in 2016 at the age of 95.
“In Memory of the Buffalo Soldiers who served with the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments as part of the United States Military Academy Cavalry Detachment at West Point.”
The statue was sculpted by Eddie Dixon in Lubbock, Texas. The 2000-pound statue was escorted to West point by eight of the National Association of Buffalo Soldiers and Troopers Motorcycle Club members.
As Confederate statues come down across the country, a bronze statue of an African-American Buffalo Soldier rises at West Point.
The installation honors forgotten Black troopers who taught horsemanship at the famed military academy. https://t.co/IP2edpz33f
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 1, 2021
The Buffalo Soldiers was officially known as the U. S. Army’s 9th and 10th Cavalry. It was founded in 1866 after the end of the civil war and was segregated until 1948. Despite being the Army’s finest horsemanship experts, they were treated as second-class citizens and forced to do grunt work and sleep in different barracks than the white soldiers they trained.
Applauding and cheers came from the cadets as the monument was erected, according to The New York Times. West Point Command Sgt. Maj. Sa’eed Mustafa’s great-uncle was Buffalo Soldier Sgt. Leon Tatum. He spoke at the statue ceremony and noted the statue was long passed due.
“These men trained cadets who then went on to be leaders in the Army as commissioned officers,” said Mustafa. “And yet they were never ever given their just due.”
Matthews was a Buffalo Soldier for 23 years before becoming a police officer in 1962. He returned to West Point in later years as a bus driver and also founded the Buffalo Soldiers Association of West Point in 2008. His wife, Cora, and Matthews are buried at the West Point cemetery.
