During World War One, the African American military experience was one of complexity. America entered the conflict to ensure that democracy would be safe in the world. However, for African Americans democracy at home was not guaranteed. Racism and segregation were rampant throughout the country and fighting for democracy abroad, while still feeling the sting of social, economic, and cultural discrimination was a hypocrisy many struggled with. Despite this sentiment, many African American men and women believed it was their patriotic duty to serve the war effort in some capacity. One of these young men was Sergeant Oscar W. Price. This series of letters between Price and his mentor, Colonel Charles Young, contain content of a seasoned officer advising and supporting a younger man in the military whom he considered a dear friend.
In 1917, Oscar W. Price registered with the United States Army and by 1918 was stationed at Camp Sherman in Ohio. Prior to his military service, Price attended Wilberforce University where he became acquainted with Colonel Charles Young. Young, a well-known successful officer in the United States Army, who also served as the head of Wilberforce’s military science department. Young’s military career began in 1884 when he began attending the United States Military Academy at West Point. In 1889, Young became only the third African American to graduate from the academy. Young left West Point as a second lieutenant and was first assigned to the Tenth U.S. Cavalry Regiment and then the Ninth U.S. Cavalry Regiment, commonly known as the “Buffalo Soldiers.” In 1894, he began his tenure with Wilberforce University, but left in 1898 to serve in the Spanish-American War. Young served as Major of the Ohio 9th Infantry Regiment. In 1903, Young became Captain of a company in San Francisco, California. He then served in Haiti in 1904 as a military attaché, collecting intelligence. Young joined his 9th regiment in 1908 in the Philippines and commanded a squadron during that conflict. In 1912, Young was sent to Liberia to head the American backed Liberian Frontier Force. When he returned to the United States in 1916 he participated in the Punitive Expedition in Mexico where he earned the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In 1917, after complaints from white officers not wanting to serve under an African American officer, the War Department removed Young from active duty, stating issues with his blood pressure. In an attempt to appeal this forced retirement, Young set out from Ohio on horseback and rode to Washington, D.C., about five hundred miles, to prove his health was still intact. Young was reinstated and promoted to full Colonel, but the war was near its end. In 1922, he was again sent to Liberia as an attaché, where on a scouting trip to Nigeria he became ill and died on January 8, 1922.
