Stuff You Should Know - Selects: Who were the Buffalo Soldiers?

Episode Date: November 11, 2023

Josh and Chuck dive into history in this classic episode to tell the story of the Buffalo Soldiers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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You can listen to JoJo Siwa now on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hey everybody, happy Saturday. It's Chuck here. With Saturday select select Sean. Yeah, that works. This week I'm going to go with who were the Buffalo soldiers. This from January 2020 and a lot of my history episodes that we do and this is one that I really enjoyed doing because we dug in, didn't know anything about this topic and those are always my favorite when I go and kind of blind and learn a lot. So check it out,

who were the Buffalo Soldiers? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I Heart Radio. a production of I Heart Radio. ["I Heart Radio"] Hey and welcome to the podcast, I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. X. Jackson Bryant, right? Sure. And then there's Jerry over there, the flash. That makes this stuff you should know.

That's right. If there's one thing people say to me, there's how much I'm like Carl Weathers. Sure. And how speedy Jerry is. Why do I want to say that Carl Weathers had one arm in action Jackson? I don't think that was a case.

Has he ever had one arm in any of his, oh, I think his arm gets pulled off in predator. Okay. I'm conflating the two. That sounds about right. That's all predator, but just once, like, you know, when it came out. I saw it within the last 12 months. Oh, yeah. I think it's even better now as it grown up.

Oh, yeah? Yeah. Okay. I can really feel the tension like you're in the jungle there with everybody. It's amazing. Have you been singing the Buffalo Soldier song? Yeah, constantly in your head despite my best effort I can't stop. Well, I looked up the lyrics because I was just, you know, I know some of them,

but I wanted to kind of see where exactly he was probably talking about the soldiers. Yeah. And there were some kind of on-the-nose references. Sure, you mentioned San Juan. You mentioned San Juan. What else? You know, fighting for America, fighting on arrival, fighting for survival. Sure. I always got it wrong though.

I thought he said, dreadlock rock star. No, he says dreadlock rasta. I know. I learned that today. I've been... Dreadlock rock star. I've been seeing... Well, I thought you were talking to himself. That's hilarious. I was singing it wrong.

I mean, he was singing about himself. No, he was singing about the Buffalo soldiers. They weren't Rostas. I guess some of them could have been. Maybe. We'll find out. Anyway, I've been singing for 40 years, Dreadlock Rockstar.

That's pretty great. Like a dumb dumb. Oh, that's all right. It's pretty close, man. And it still makes sense. The ones that don't make sense are the hilarious ones. That just seems like a very like, I don't know, 1991 white college kid thing to sing. Dread like rock star?

Yeah. Dread like rock. Yeah. When you first start listening to Bob Marley. Uh huh. Okay, you ready? I'm ready. So we're talking Buffalo soldiers, and then it is not just a Bob Marley song.

It's, if anything, the Bob Marley song is kind of like a history lesson, which is kind of interesting. A bit. But the Buffalo soldiers was the name of some all black regiments and then eventually all black soldiers in the United States fighting in the United States military. That's right. From right after the Civil War, all the way up until I think 1951, when the last all black regiment was disbanded and the military was in practice desegregated. Yeah, but when did you say that happened? I think 1951.

Okay. But they did not take on that name until post civil war. Right. And at first, it wasn't a name that they took on themselves. It was a name that was given to them. There's a lot of dispute over where it came from, who's the first to use it, that kind of stuff.

But it's a really interesting history, and it's not just an interesting like military history. There's a lot of like terrible tragic irony involved. Sure. There's this kind this overarching theme where you can make a case that the Buffalo soldiers are the ones who actually paved the way for desegregation throughout the entire United States. You can trace a direct line from their service to desegregation. It's pretty amazing stuff. And yet there's still this kind of cloud that hangs

over them historically because of one of the things that they participated in, which was the genocide of Native Americans at the behest of the white U.S. government. Right. Because they were trying to earn a place in white America and gain some status and prestige. And white America was like, we want you to do something for us first. And we'll still probably not grant you that respect. Yeah, which is kind of par for the course from what I understand as far as military service

and being black in America goes, in the Battle of New Orleans, the black phalanx, this black regiment ended up, pretty cool name. Yeah, it really is. They ended up basically winning the battle against the British at the Battle of New Orleans, which actually came ironically after the end of the War of 1812, but it was still a decisive battle.

Yeah. And they had been mustard, a lot of them, from local plantations by Andrew Jackson. And Jackson had promised them their freedom if they came and fought in one. And they came and fought in one. And Jackson said, yes, sorry, you have to go back to your plantations. I was lying. That's not a surprise. Yeah. But imagine that. And that was not the first time that that had happened to him. That was pretty much par for the course. Sure. While they were enslaved, they would be promised freedom for fighting. And then, no, after the fact that's just not it's not going to happen. Yeah. And, you know, like we said, the Buffalo soldiers post-civil war were and we'll get to

like their formal designation and their regiments and stuff like that. But there had been individuals enlisted and all the way back to the Revolutionary War. There were black individuals that would go and fight, but they just weren't grouped in their own regiments. The first one was the black regiment in... Rhode Island, I think. Yeah, in the Revolutionary War.

I didn't we talk about them in a short stuff about the black Revolutionary War fighters and they moved up to Nova Scotia. We definitely did we? So the grabs to put this a lot of this together for us, which was a big help. And it's important to look at what was going on after the Civil War and this unique set of circumstances that would create the kind of lead to these regiments being formed. Yeah. Which was about 12,000, maybe a little bit more, black veteran soldiers from the Civil War, all of a sudden needed jobs and they were soldiers at this point. So they were like, you know,

all of a sudden needed jobs and they were soldiers at this point. So they were like, you know, I'll keep doing this. This could be my career. Right. Like give us a job. Yeah. And reconstruction in the South, they needed federal troops. They needed white federal troops. Well, yes.

So it was probably not a good idea to send black troops for to oversee reconstruction. So to occupy the South, can you imagine? No, it would not have been. Oh my God. So they sent white troops, of course, but that created a vacuum elsewhere where they could use and utilize these black troops.

Right. There were four million slaves that were now free. And Ed Hazard, I guess, that, you know, let's say a million, one and a half million of these were adult males that were ready to go and serve and fight if need be And then we were going west and we knew that there were Native Americans out there that we're not gonna go easily There was Mexico looming on the horizon as potential conflict, right and because they were sending white soldiers to the South

They needed people to go out west and kind of keep the peace in a way and take care of business in another way. Or to remove Native Americans forcibly from their ancestral land. That's right. So on July 28th, 1866, Congress did something really surprising. They said, we've got all these kind of expansionist ideas.

We've got the South that we need to occupy. We need a bigger army. We're going to raise kind of expansionist ideas. We've got the South that we need to occupy. We need a bigger army. We're going to raise a huge peacetime army. And not only that, we're going to form some all black regiments. We're going to let black people enlist for the first time ever as peacetime soldiers. Yeah, and partially because they just needed people.

And partially because they thought these black. Yeah. And partially because they thought these black veterans had fought in the Civil War for the Union, they should be rewarded with jobs. Exactly. So for the first time, the federal government didn't reneg on the offer of something better after having served and fought. That's right. As a soldier. So there's a big deal in just having, you know, allowing soldiers, black soldiers to enlist during peacetime. But the fact that they could enlistment, that they could become officers as well, which meant West Point was open to black soldiers for the first time. Which was a huge deal. Yeah. In 1816, so in 1866, as when they expanded the army, just a few years later, they wanted to shrink

the army a little bit. So they consolidated a bunch of regiments down to 25, and the original, I think it was six, four infantry and two cavalry were now shrunk down and combined into the ninth cavalry, the tenth Calvary. I'm saying both Calvary and Cavalry. Sure, just covering all your bases, even though only one of them is correct in this Calvary. The 24th Infantry and the 25th Infantry.

Right. And the fact that they survived this downsizing of the army, because Congress went, we need a big army. That's too big. Let's get rid of some soldiers. The fact that all black regiments survived is really miraculous because in that downsizing decree, a few years later, it wasn't included like,

and we still need to keep black regiments intact. Right. And William, to Cumpse, Sherman was no great friend to the black man by any stretch of the imagination. And he was in charge of downsizing these troops. And yet he knew enough that there were still congress people, congressmen in Congress, who had created the black regiments in the first place. They would not be very happy if he just dissolved them.

So he kept them in tact and actually just went from six to four. Yeah, and it's interesting because it was peacetime, you know, during wartime, especially back then, it was really pretty easy to get people to sign up and volunteer and fight for whatever side they were on. But in peacetime, they found that they could get the cream of the crop of black soldiers because they didn't have as much opportunity. Right. So they could really be picky

and get these really super capable fighters. Whereas on the other side during peacetime, it was harder to get white soldiers that were as capable because they had much more opportunities to do other things beyond like, hey, I got nothing going, I'll send it for the army. Right, exactly. And in the army too, there's a lot of mythologizing about,

how the black regiments retreated, it related to white regiments as well. And it seems like some historians have shown if you trace the supply lines, the black regiments got the same shoddy and then increasingly better supplies as the white regiments at the same time. And in the army, you had just opportunities that just weren't afforded to you outside

like the opportunity to make money, you know, and have savings and a pension. Things that you could kind of bank on a future with that was just not part of the black experience of black men, back then. Right. You know? I think that's a very robust setup and more. Oh, we're still doing setup? No, let's be honest. That's why I said, and more.

OK. But I think what I'm trying to say is it's a great time for a break. OK. Yeah. Yeah. All right, we'll be right back and we'll talk a little bit about how this name came to be right after this. Stential dread but love talking about delicious snacks call me my podcast is relaunching

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You are yelling at me. And this, do you want to go to the Clipper game with me tonight? Do you have 25 references of mutual friends that can tell me that you're not a murderer? And this, hold on, I got to open some peanut butter pretzels. murderer. And this, hold on, I got to open some peanut butter pretzels. Listen to Call Chelsea Parradi on Will Ferrell's big money players network on the iHeart Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. It's JoJoCeeWa host of the new podcast JoJoCeeWa Now.

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It's gonna be great, and I really hope you like it. You can listen to Jojo Siwa now on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Grace Campbell, and on my new podcast, 28 Dates Later, I'm changing the narrative on how we find love. Join me on a wild adventure as I go on blind dates. Finding suitors on the internet's strangest apps and only picking people who are the total opposite of my type. Dissecting my dates and listening in on all the cringiest moments will be my friend Ross.

Every time I hear about it I go in and I call my boyfriend and I'm like, Thank God! And my friend Dan! Okay, the dead is floating, I've never heard of my low. Who won't be giving me an easy ride? Honestly, if you have to say that to me on a day, I would have walked out. Uh-uh! And after going on 28 of these dates in two months,

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like their brave and they fight their fierce, like the buffalo. And like Sasha Fears? I don't know what that is. That's like Beyonce's weird alias. Really? Why do stars, when you get to this enormous huge point, decide to create an ultra-ego that is always not good? Chris Gaines. Yes. Learn the lesson from Chris Gaines. Yeah, who else has done that? It doesn't matter. Chris Gaines is an open-footed dev work.

Ziggy Stardust certainly worked. Captain Fantastic worked. Fine. Chris Gaines negates all those. No, I agree. Okay. I didn't know that Beyonce. Very short-lived.

Really? And what was the persona? Was it really different? I guess she was fierce. I don't know that Beyonce. Very short-lived. Really? And what was the persona? Was it really different? I guess she was fierce. I don't know. I just heard her name a couple of times. Beyonce's fierce though, right? Right.

You don't need an alter ego, Beyonce. You're fierce enough. You don't want to go too much fiercer. You should be her manager. You should. You know all the right moves. So that is one of the stories was that it was a name of honor from the Native Americans, but this to me sounds like it might have been just something kind

of cooked up in history books. Or it just kind of converted into that maybe. The Smithsonian Museum of African American History says, yeah, that stands as popular lore, that's one example. Another is basically there's two competing ones. And that is that the Native Americans did give this name to the black soldiers, but that they were referring to the woolly-ness of the black soldiers' hair compared to white soldiers' hair. And that if you look between the horns of a buffalo, that kind of like to pay almost that the

buffalo is wearing bears of vague resemblance to it. And that's where it initially came from. Yeah. And there's like direct evidence from letters and stuff of the time of this, whether or not it was true or not, it was at least down in print as being the reason. Yeah. But we don't know for sure. And we don't know for sure how they felt about the name other than it seems like as time

went on, they kind of embraced the name as a designation. Yeah. And in one case, there was one troop that did use a bison on a patch on their uniform, but then bison were used on other patches on uniforms of white soldiers too. I think it was strictly black regiments. Oh, really? Just later ones that weren't the 9th, 10th, 24th, or 25th. Oh, gotcha.

That was my interpretation. Okay. But yeah, by the time I think 1911 is when that first patch appears, but so by the time 1911 rolls around, the black regiments had totally taken on Buffalo soldiers as a name of honor. Yeah, and Ed points out, I think it's fair, it's easy now in 2020 to look back at two ethnic groups that were kept under the thumb

of the white man and say that, oh, the Native Americans respected them as fierce fighters and the black soldiers respected the Native Americans. But that's probably retroactive. Revisionist history. Revisionist history, because there were plenty of cases where the Buffalo soldiers referred to them as savages, and in one case of one soldier going as a costume party,

dressed up, and I guess what you would call red face. Oh yeah. And so yeah, it seems like that sort of cooked up these days. Like they really had much respect for one another during their battles, but I don't know if that's a case. No, but you can understand how that would, how people would want to do that. Sure. You know, because I mean, the sending African-American soldiers out

to remove Native Americans from their land with violence at the behest of white people. It's not a good story. No, it's a terrible story. Yeah, it takes a bad story, it makes it worse. And then at the same time, there's a real silver line to it. There's that good story that like Black soldiers served as heroes for the Black community in America as a whole at a time when they really needed some Black heroes. You know, the Jim Crow South was really starting to solidify.

So it's not like an all-bad story, but it's definitely not an all-good story either. So people want like a nice storybook ending for sure, which is surely where that came from. Yeah, I think so. So should we talk a little bit about what they did? Yeah, we should. Yeah, when they were first assembled in, I think that late to mid 1860s,

they were almost immediately moved out to the frontier, Kansas, and Texas, New Mexico, pushing further and further west as their work was increasingly successful. Yeah, and usually under the command of white officers, it was not looked at as some great assignment if you were a white officer to go west and command one of the Buffalo soldier regiments. Yeah, it would have been like being stationed in Alaska or something like that. Alaska is great. Although some white commanding officers did rise to the occasion.

Yeah, and had a lot of great things to say about the soldiers too. For sure. Some of them definitely did not rise to the occasion and actually went the other way. Right. You know? Yeah. And you mentioned West Point. This was a huge deal because, like you said, now these young men could go attend West

Point and come out officers upon entry into the army. There were quite a few cases. One was a man named Henry Flipper. He was the first black graduate of West Point in 1877, came out as second lieutenant in the 10th cavalry, and was basically set up with a court marshal. There was a case where he was put in charge of a quarter master's safe to guard it basically and take charge of it. Money becomes missing. He kind of freaks out and lies about it. It's kind of all evidence point to the fact that he didn't take the money.

But he did lie about where he went. What did he lie about? I couldn't find that. I think that the initial money was missing at all, maybe. Oh, okay. I'm not really sure. But it looks like it was a setup. He was acquitted of the main charge even back then. Yeah. And was found guilty of an added charge of conduct, unbecoming of an officer. The lying part. Right. And was dismissed from the army, which even back then was an overblown sentence compared to the similar charges of white officers.

Right. Now the army at the time, he could have gotten his discharge changed to honorable discharge. Right. But the army apparently didn't have any procedure to do that. So it was up to the commander-in-chief, Chester A. Arthur, to decide, yay or nay, and he just led it pass by. So Lieutenant, it was a lieutenant? Second Lieutenant.

Second Lieutenant Flipper went to his grave saying that he was innocent and in the 90s, I think 1998, Bill Clinton finally pardoned him. Billy boy. He did. And Clinton, that goal ordered him to exhumed and re-barried with full military honors. Oh, interesting. But they suspect that Clinton just wanted to see what the body looked like. Come on. He said, let's do this right. Yeah, he probably did say that.

So there were another couple of cases. John Hanks, Alexander and Charles Young, they were West Point grads early on. They went on to lead these regiments. And that's not to say that at West Point it was smooth sailing of course, right? You know, they had a very hard time there and still persevered. Yeah extraordinarily I've points out that in the Tuskegee Airmen episode two we I think we talked about how the those guys who went through West Point had Or the military academies had just an awful time of it too. Yeah, I mean that happened I or the military academies. I had just an awful time of it too.

Yeah, I mean, that happened. I mean, it probably still happens to some degree. Sure. But I mean, I read the Lords of Discipline. I did too. And saw the movie. I don't know if I saw the movie or not. And that was what year was that set?

That was probably 60s. Was it? What was the problem with that guy? He just was soft or something? Wouldn't it, he like was, was a, he had feelings. You know, I don't remember. I haven't seen it in a long time. Yeah. But, um, that was the Citadel, not West Point, which is Navy, I think, right? Air Force, Marines, I'm not sure what the Citadel is.

National Guard. No, Cubscouts. Yeah, it was Cubscouts. Citadel, famous Cubscouts. Where they'll bring you to. They'll bring you to the area. So these regiments had about a thousand troops and officers, but they were constantly under supplied. Yeah.

And like you said earlier, there's no evidence that they were intentionally under supplied. No, but it's a myth that they were. Yeah, but kind of everyone out west was because it takes a long time to get stuff out there and a lot of those old civil war weapons and equipment were pretty shoddy anyway. Yeah, plus I mean, it's not really easy to come by water in the New Mexico desert. Sure. Or you're fighting the Cheyenne or the Apache. So you have horses that need water too because you're a cavalry unit. And the horses were breaking down. It was a really bad time as they were moving further and further west because we tend to think of the United States military like in the terms of today, this just incredibly well

oil logistical juggernaut. Sure. That was not the case after the Civil War, as a matter of fact, until I believe the Spanish-American War, the United States military was looked upon internationally as kind of like not the best around. Certainly not the best equipped,

the logistics, we didn't have that kind of stuff down. You didn't hear it from me, but. Right, exactly. But, and this was, you know, the army that these guys were enlisted in. Yeah. So, they were dealing with an army that was not, was finding its feet. And then also on the frontier of the United States at a time when they're protecting the people building the railroad. So, protecting the people building the railroads.

So there's not even the railroads out there yet. One of their jobs was to protect railroad workers, male carriers, people who were on cattle drives. Yeah. These were the jobs they were tasked with. Well they were also fighting like we said in what was known as the Indian Wars, including some of the big ones. I think we need to do a big old known as the Indian Wars, including some of the big ones. I think we need to do a big old episode on the Indian Wars.

Yeah, let's do it. Wounded knee, the white river war. Yeah, I'd never heard of that one. I looked it up, the war is not a term for most of these. This should be massacres. No, it should be straight up massacres. Yeah. Although here's the other thing too,

this is really easy for guys like us to do, especially in retrospect, is what's called like mythologizing the noble savage, right, where we kind of make it seem like the Indians were just the people who kind of meekly accepted their fate and were just rolled over by the US government through this westward expansion That's not the case in almost every case the further west we got the fears of the fighting got yeah They pushed back for sure they engaged in massacres that included killing women and children and non-combatants Right on both sides did so it's not like the Native Americans were just innocent of bloodshed.

But it's important to remember that they were defending their lands from invaders. They were the insurgents in that. So there's like a certain amount of moral higher ground that they afforded just for being in that position. Right, You know? For sure. But it's just, that's the thing.

That's why I've always been fascinated about history. It's like, it's never just, you know, black and white. Yeah, there's so much nuance that gets overlooked, especially if you were raised in like, you know, public schools in America. Exactly. Not a lot of nuance going on. Right. And this question. Why people swooped in and everything was great.

Exactly. So by the 1890s, the Indian Wars ended. The reservations popped up, or they were just flat out, massacred, like you said, or imprisoned. And this is when the Buffalo soldiers started taking part in some of the land disputes out west with white settlers. Yeah. The removal of the Sun tuners in Oklahoma. That's huge.

It is huge. Because all of a sudden black regiment show up and they're like, you might be white, but you need to get out of here because you didn't follow the rules. That's right. That's a huge change from a decade or so before when those people would have been enslaved in this house.

Right. It's a big deal. What else? You mentioned San Juan from the Bob Marley song? Yeah, that was when they entered the national stage for the first time. Yeah, fighting in Cuba and Puerto Rico. Yeah, it's very confusing.

They fought at the battle of San Juan, Hill and Cuba and the battle for San Juan in Puerto Rico. That's right. Under the 10th regimen, under the command of a guy named General John Pershing, who you might be familiar with as known as Blackjack Pershing, the famous World War I general. Yeah, I had heard of him.

He was named Blackjack because he was in command of the Black Regiments, the 10th Cavalry. And I mean, I think in the first World War, he was a little less willing to stand up and advocate for them, but by the time World War II came around, he was. Okay, so I didn't hear about the World War II part, but that was a pretty big betrayal in World War I because he led the 10th Calvary up San Juan Hill in Cuba, along with the Rough Riders, along with white infantry, this battle was one of the first ones

right before the turn of the 20th century. Yeah. Where if you were standing back, like looking at this battle, there's black guys, there's white guys, there's black guys on horses, there's Spanish people coming down here, like there's all these people,

but the black soldiers and the white soldiers were intermingling, fighting together side by side. And they won. And Teddy Roosevelt said, it was all me. I won the battle of Cuba, saying why I'm Cuba. But historians say, actually, no, these black regiments, specifically the 10th cavalry, really won this battle in the Spanish-American war

down in Cuba. And it was huge. It put the Buffalo soldiers on the map for really the first time ever in the American popular consciousness. And like black families around America, like you could go into their dining room and there'd be a print of like a painting of the battle saying, Juan, the Buffalo soldiers storming the hill. Like one historian put it that they were there, that generation's Jackie Robinson and Joe Lewis. Like they were the heroes, like I was saying,

they were the heroes at a time when Jim Crow laws were really coming into force. At a really bleak time for Black America, all of a sudden there's these buffalo soldiers that basically helped win the Spanish-American war fighting alongside white soldiers too and being equal in that respect. And that's why you'll see all those statues right next to Teddy Roosevelt. Exactly.

Exactly. And you know what, I may have made up that part about general perishing advocating more of World War II. Now that I think about it. Oh, well, I didn't get to the betrayal thing Chuck. So when World War I rolled around, he was in charge of, I think, basically everybody in Europe. And he turned his back on his black regiment in all black soldiers and basically said, no, you guys fight in your own regiment.

So I don't want you fighting side by side. And, but the French were like, hey, come fight with us. We'll command you. And that happened. That reminded me. The French were also the first ones to recognize officially the Native American code talkers, even before the United States did. Oh, I remember that.

And they also used black aviators in World War I too. So up with the French, historically speaking. That's right. There's a teacher that gave us those fries. Sure. And that bread. You mean freedom fries? Uh huh.

Freedom bread. I feel like I'm talking a lot. Oh yeah? Am I? I mean, no more than usual. Okay. Freedom bread. So in World War II, the Buffalo Soldier units were used a lot. A lot of times though, they were not on the front lines.

They were stuck to administrative and support duties, but they did join in combat here and there on both the theaters and the war, mostly toward the end of World War II. But it was, you know, a lot of the good that you see coming out of what the Buffalo soldiers did was foundation work and groundwork for desegregating the military, for showing that these guys are just the same as white soldiers. They're just as capable, they fight just as bravely, and it really kind of laid that groundwork for the desegregation after the war. Yes, like a direct line for it. It's weird, but basically a way to put it is that the white

America said, okay, all right, if you, we'll give you a shot. You go out and serve in battle and let's see what you can do. And then maybe we'll see from there. And just by being given that one opportunity to show that they could do things that were presumed they couldn't act bravely and fight and be a good soldier that was good at being a soldier, they proved that all of these myths about how black people couldn't do these things were wrong.

And that kind of thing opens up some people's eyes to, okay, well, what else? It's, do I think about black people that are wrong? And it's weird to think about because, I know, on a social level, that that's what it takes, that people's minds can be changed like that. But historically speaking, in retrospect,

that's how it happens. Yeah. You know, like one prejudice is tested, and then all of a sudden, other prejudice is start slowly, yeah, kind of falling over like dominoes. Totally. Very, very slowly though. Yeah.

Unfortunately. Like dominoes, you can only picture falling fast. I know. Do that in slow motion. It's almost a terrible analogy. Almost. So it's crazy to think, but even though desegregation happened long before this, it takes a while for that to fully happen.

Right. And they were Buffalo Soldier units in the Korean War, all black units in the Korean War. There was, but it was 1948, I think that Truman signed this act desegregating the military. Yeah, and I think it was, it took three more years, 1951 when the final one was disbanded the 27th. Right, but that's why I was saying you could trace

a direct line of desegregation from the military because that was the first chance that black America had to show that it could be treated equally and that it could act equally. And they showed that and it led to desegregation in the military. And then three years after the actual impractous desegregation of military regiments, there was the Brown versus Board of Education ruling, which not in practice, but in theory desegregated schools. So army, schools, and then eventually socially,

it just kept going. But it was because of the buffalo soldiers in their service, directly undisputedly. Oh yeah, I mean, it's crazy to think as late as the Korean War though, some of those units were still fighting. Yeah, it is, because when I think of match, it doesn't feel modern, but it doesn't feel like

Buffalo soldier territory. Right. Yeah, the Buffalo soldiers, you think of like 19th century American West, not 1950s Korea. No, you don't think of Hawkeye and his gin still. I guess it was one black character on Mesh with a very unfortunate name, but we won't talk about that. I'm not familiar. No good.

No, I don't remember. All right, well I think we should take a break and come back and talk about what is to me. Okay. One of the cooler aspects of this whole story. The Bob Marley song. No. We'll be right back. Hello, I'm Chelsea Paredi. Do you feel chronic existential dread but love talking about delicious snacks? Call me!

My podcast is relaunching! Subscribe and treat yourself to sound effects like this! And this! Have you ever been attacked by a bear? Yeah! And moments like this! I have an apple sweet in front of the space here. No!

And my whole leg, from my knee down in my foot burnt until it's squashed with a big bubble. And this, kale chips are delicious. And they're too oily when I go. They shouldn't be soft at all. It should be really crispy. That's what I said every single time. You are yelling at me. And this, do you want to go to the Clipper of Game

with me tonight? Do you have 25 references of mutual friends that can tell me that you're not a murderer? Um. And this, hold on, I got gotta open some peanut butter pretzels. [♪ Sound of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds of fire, sounds ofa, host of the new podcast, JoJoCewaNow. Godwin mitt, I am so excited to finally be starting my podcast, JoJoCewaNow. I feel like I've grown up in front of the world. You know, the first time the world saw me publicly was at nine years old.

Now, it's time to get real up close and personal. You're gonna see why I am the way I am now. You're gonna see who I am now way I am now. You're gonna see who I am now. And it's gonna be pretty fun. It's gonna be like an inside look at what I've been up to in the last three years. It's basically like, I'm gonna be talking to you like I'm writing in a journal.

You're gonna get all of the tea and all of the scoop. I'm also gonna be talking to my friends, the people I admire, the people that are trending right now. So you're gonna get like, Jojo Siwa now, and like, now what's going on in the world. It's gonna be great. I really hope you like it. You can listen to Jojo Siwa now on the I Heart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. From Wall Street to Main Street and from Hollywood to Washington, the news is filled with decisions, turning points, deals, and collisions. I'm Tim O'Brien, the senior executive editor for Bloomberg Opinion, and I'm your host for Crash Course, a weekly podcast from Bloomberg and I Heart Radio. Every week on Crash Course, all bring listeners directly into the arenas where epic upheavals occur, and I'm going to explore the lessons we can learn when creativity and ambition collide with competition and power. Each Tuesday, I'll talk to Bloomberg reporters around the world, as well as experts and big names in the news. Together, we'll explore business, political and social

disruptions, and what we can learn from them. I'm Tim O'Brien, host'll explore business, political and social disruptions and what we can learn from them. I'm Tim O'Brien, host of Crash Course, a new weekly podcast from Bloomberg and I Heart radio. Listen to Crash Course every Tuesday on the I Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, we're back and we're going to talk about what I think is one of the coolest little parts here of this whole story, which I never knew if you've ever been to Sequoia National Park or Yosemite National Park or some other national parks out west. And you're hiking a trail or driving down a road. You might have the Buffalo Soldiers to thank for that trail and those roads. They, and it's one of their, their highlight achievements to me, is once we established

the national parks, Teddy Roosevelt again, Yeah. Built statues of him. Right. You had to enforce this stuff, because this was the first time we were like, wait a minute, this is protected land. Can't just come in here and take the timber or hunt the animals. Like, there are rules now. You set up like, you set aside grazing lands.

You set aside national parks, libertarians, they take issue with that kind of thing. And you need to have Buffalo soldiers to fight them off. That's right. So from 1891 to 1913, about 25 years or so, some of these black regiments were essentially the first park rangers. They didn't have that name at the time, but they kept the poachers at bay and stopped the illegal grazing in the timber thieves.

They fought wildfires. Yeah, I didn't get a chance to really look into this, but I wonder what 1913 wildfire fighting was like. I bet it was real dicey. Bucket brigade stuff, probably. Because like 2020 firefighting is dicey, wildfire fighting, but a hundred years ago, man, I bet it was. I can't imagine. Good Lord. But like I said, with the trails and stuff, a lot of some of the more significant trails

and roads. Some of the buildings? Yeah, some of the older cabins. They were built and constructed by Buffalo Soldiers, which is just super cool. Yeah, so if you find a building in Yosemite or Sequoia National Parks, that's from 1891 to 1913. Yes, then it was probably built by Buffalo Soldiers. Or Hiking a Trail.

Yeah, this is all just super cool. Yeah, it is pretty cool. They also rode bicycles around the place too, which is kind of neat. Yeah. Yeah. So Chuck, the last Buffalo soldier, and I mean like original Buffalo soldier, Mark Matthews,

he died on September 6, 2005. He was entered at Arlington National Sanitary. He was 111 years old. And he actually fought under General Pershing in the 10th cavalry on the hunt for Pachovia. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think I don't know if we mentioned that. How many metals of honor were there 23.

I saw 23 the National Museum of African American History says 18. I'm going to go with them. All right. Somewhere between 18 and 23, let's say that. Yeah, so you know, the I guess the moral of the story is that they did provide this direct line to desegregation, not only through the army, but like you're saying, all through America. But sadly, a lot of them did exit the military. Some of them did have a little higher status and a leg to stand on.

Many of them didn't. They were those a study of lynchings in the US that found that black military veterans were targeted and lynched more than non-veteran black people with the idea that it was a real threat in the racist white south for a black man to leave the army with some rank and some status feeling good guns, feeling good about himself.

Don't forget the Tulsa massacre episode. It was the World War I vets who were like, now we're gonna go defend this boy from being lynched with guns. They showed up with guns. I think they're, I remember in the Black Panther episode two, they traced a direct line of this sense of like, you need to defend yourself and protect yourself with firearms. They traced that directly to World War I veteran. Oh yeah.

So there is a terrible logic to that, I guess. Yeah, for sure. There was also a terrible senator and governor of Mississippi named James Vardeman who was just straight up white supremacist like no matter how you slice it you could have just had senator from mississippi in nineteen seventeen sure uh... he's he spoke to the u.s. senate and he really kind of crystallizes how they felt

about uh... black veterans in nineteen seventeen on the senate floor he said once you impress the negro with the fact that he is defending the flag and inflate his un-tortured soul with military heirs, his political rights must be respected. And he wasn't saying like, and that's great. Yeah, so let's respect that. Yeah, this was a warning basically.

Right. And he was over looked, they didn't listen to him, ultimately, because they did continue having black soldiers as soldiers and eventually desegregated, which led to desegregation in America, which is pretty great. That's right. I would love to hear from some current African-American military personnel, because I wanna know what the current sort of temperature is as an active service person. Oh, what the racism's like in the military? Yeah, sure.

I'm sure, you know, there'll be different versions of that story depending on who you're in contact with and what your particular platoon is like. Yeah, I wonder though, because the military is some kind of weird, similar act of American society. It is. I wonder if it's more racist or less racist. I think there's a chance you can go either way.

I mean, my guess is less. You know, like I said, my brother-in-law before is a marine, and pretty high up, you could say. And every time I've been on these marine bases a lot, and it all seems like they're all sort of, you know, got that thinking, that groupthink going on. Like, we're just Marines, like none of us are a color. We're green. Well, I've seen full metal jacket, and there are a lot of rates of stuff in there.

No. I'm sure. Okay. Yeah. Could go either way. It could go either way. I would like to hear that as well. I'd also like to hear from many Native American listeners to know what they were taught

about Buffalo soldiers too, what was passed down within the different tribes. Yeah. Because they contacted all sorts of different tribes from the Lakota Sioux up in the north, down to the Apaches in New Mexico and Mexico. Yeah. Yeah. Beaches everyone. Yeah.

We'll read them on listener mail. If you want to know more about Buffalo Soldiers, there's a lot of really great stuff to read. And you can't really go wrong with the guy named Frank Schubert, who is a scholar of them, of Buffalo Soldiers. And he's got a lot of articles on the web and I believe some books too. And since I said Frank Schubert, it's time for Listener Mail. Oh no, it's not. Oh, it's right. You know what it's time for.

Hit him, Chuck. It is time for administrative details. So we haven't done this in a little while. If you're new to the show, administrative details is where we take a couple of minutes, we're going to do this on this episode in the next. You got that straight. To read out some thank yous. Tell them Chuck, for some of the kindnesses that people throw our way.

That's right. Whether they be physical totems, like t-shirts and buttons and to confectionaries, like cookies and pastries and cheeses. I like that. What I did not do on this one and I feel bad because you probably did is write down all the names of all the postcards and letters. I wrote down the ones that I, yeah, I think I've got basically everybody. And we should say we almost always miss somebody or a few.

So if we don't say your name and you've not been thanked on a previous administrative detail, please get in touch with us so we can correct that. That's right. And if you have a letter or a postcard that is on my desk, I'll include those in the next batch, because now I feel bad. Bam.

All right, let's go through these. Oh, and there's also some people who I don't have names for, but we do have the items. So you can also write in and be like, that was me. That's right. For example, the very nice person who gave us almond cookies and whiskey cake at our Orlando show. Oh, that's right.

Our live show in Orlando, don't remember, or don't have the name of who gave us that, but thank you for him. Katie from Davis, California, sent us some cool little notebooks. They were little notebooks like schemes was like the title of one of them. Oh right. Or you can write down your schemes. Yeah. Band names, just sort of fun names on the covers of these notebooks. Yeah, thanks a lot. A huge, huge thanks as always to our

good friends, Hillary and Mike Lozar, and they're good friends, the people at Flathead Lake Cheese, for all the cheese. That's right. Flathead Lake Cheese is far and away my favorite cheese in the world. It's good cheese. They make very good cheese. You guys cannot go wrong. Just go get some flathead like cheese and you'll love it. Yeah, a lot of, I don't know if they specialize in Gouda, but we seem to be on the Gouda mailing list. They make a hopped Gouda that is my favorite. Have you had it? Oh yeah. Oh my gosh, it's yum.

It has hops in it. It's like it's a beer, but it's cheese. And while we're on the Lozars, Hillary and Mike and Coup, I just got this today, they sent us aprons. Yeah. Word butchers. Yeah. Aprons. That is so appropriate.

So it's a knife going into the lettering of a word butchers because I don't know if you guys know this, but we are well known to mispronounce everything. Yeah, to butt your words. I knew you were going to do that. So Smody from France sent us a T card with some Le Tumarmats T attached. Thank you, Smody. Jess Fowl sent us his game that he designed,

Philosophy the Game, or better yet drunk philosophy. That's a great name. Katie Barnes from the Barnes Made soap company for the wonderful soap. All of them are really good, but I strongly recommend the Autumn Fig and the Mariner Brine Bar. Good stuff. Oh, you can head over to Barnes Made, b-a-r-n-e-S-M-A-D-E.com for some of Katie's soaps. Becky in France, a sinister planetary coasters that she made.

And her studio is cfidstudio.com, that is C-E-P-H-E-I-D, studio.com. If you want some planetary coasters, they are pretty spacey and awesome. Kevin Reuter gave us basil, Hayden, and Bullet Rye. Remember that at our show at the Bell House? Yes. And even wrapped them up as Christmas presents. That's right. Which is just lovely.

Thanks a lot, Kevin. And funny enough, at the show, somebody asked us like, what are, what, like, drink we would want to have on a desert island if we could only have one and both of us We're saying gin drinks and he was like wow I guess I guessed wrong with the basil. Hey, no, he didn't know that no dude. You nailed it. We're all inclusive Our buddy Van Nosteron. I feel like he's seen us more than this. So if you have something else let us know Yeah, we just hung out with him in his wonderful wife Leah. Yes now. We just hung out with him in his wonderful wife, Leah, in Seattle. He's in some records. Some awesome records.

Smurf's Disco Duck, Lawrence Welk, and the John Denver Muppets Christmas. And you know what? Van Nostrein gave us books before, and one of them was about, oh, I can't say, yeah, because the live show is not out. But he gave us a book about the live show years ago, and I never got around to reading it. Oh, that's right. They reminded me after the show, they were like, you know, I was sending you that book, you dummy. Oh, yeah.

I said, I'll have to read it now. Will and Katie Lynn Lee sent us coffee from Coffee by Design. So nice. Delish. Let's see. Nicole Collins, DO, Doctor of osteopathy, sent us a copy of her book Insight, which is on Vision, like real Vision, and the miracle that is Vision. So check it out.

I thought we were going to Insight. I thought we were going to Insight. I thought we were going to Insight. I thought we were going to Insight. I thought we were going to Insight. I thought we were going to Insight. I thought we were going to Insight. I thought we were going to Insight.

I thought we were going to Insight. I thought we were going to Insight. I thought we were going to Insight. I thought we were going to Insight. I thought we were going to Insight. I was delivered by a DO. And one of the things they do is they adjust you, like you're a baby and they adjust you like a chiropractor when you're born. I was born breach. So the DO adjusted me in reverse order. And apparently everyone delivered a room game of golf clap afterward. And you waved your hand and said thank you everyone.

Yeah, thank you. I have a taste for the applause thing now. Farge Gurgles, Farge. Indigo proof from Portland sent me a gift certificate for one free denim repair. Nice. So I complained about my Levi's blowing out. So they said,

send me those jeans and we'll fix them for you. Yeah, fair enough. It's Indigo proof in where else? Do they fix jeans? Portland, Oregon. That is a jeigo Proof in Worlds. Do they fix jeans? Portland, Oregon. That is a gene fix in town. Totally. I've got a super old one from, not this past October, but the October before last

Chuck. Wow. Do you remember Kathy with a K Tosh at, I believe, our Phoenix show, our Salt Lake City show, one of the two? Are you talking about? Gave us Lassos. Yeah. Real of the two. You're talking about. Gave us lasso. Yeah. Real live lasso. Roping rope.

And she said, go on to YouTube and learn how to lasso now. Yeah. And I have yet to do that, but I still have my lasso. So thanks a lot, Kathy. We really appreciate you. Yeah, it's not only cool, because I will try and learn that one day, but it looks cool hanging on a wall. For sure.

And also, I think Kathy is a postal worker, so hopefully she hopefully she dug our going postal episode. I haven't heard from her. That's right. Email is Kathy and let us know how we did. The correction to read but I'll just wait for Lister and Mail for that one. Oh yeah. That was me. That was me. That was my bad. Was it just you? I think so. Somebody else made it seem like it was me too. How many more should we do for this one? Let's each do three more. Okay. Anna Parker, she is a painter and muralist who did this lovely painting of my three dogs, two of which are now dearly departed. But it's very, very sweet.

And speaking of which, you can find those at her work at sweettemurals.com. Oh yes, very nice. which you can find those at her work at sweettmurals.com. Oh, yes, very nice. Let's see, Lance Roper, who's my boy from Toledo, who is from actual coffee in Toledo, sent me some really good coffee. So check out actual coffee in Toledo. Actual coffee.

Yes. Betty, I've released in a Spoodoo Dolls of us. Oh, I wanted to know who made that. Those are so cool. They are. Yeah. They're like really cute and they're laden with little Easter eggs. Like, I'm holding all kinds of crazy things that all relate to shows.

I'm holding a magic mushroom. Really? Well, that's from a show. But they had no pins. We should point out. So they weren't Boudude dolls that were out to harmormus. No her son Josh introduced her to the show. Oh, and her husband. Way to go, Josh So thanks Betty. Yeah, Momo's riding my foot on mine too. Oh really? Yeah, that's very cute Let's see

The wooden egg and special egg Coasters S.Y.S.K. Egg coasters from the very kind people at Good Egg World. Yeah. Yeah. All right, I got one more for this edition. Adam Peterson, this was a really cool gift. He sent us two bottles of Coca-Cola from the very last run of returnable bottles that Coca-Cola ever did. Oh, wow. There were small family run bottler in Winona, Minnesota and he said his in-laws had run it since 1932 So these were the last run of returnables that came off the line and they're even stamped with their little family Bottle or name and everything. Oh, that's really cool. Oh All right last one this one came from the Toronto show

Got named Phil Bowen gave us each a prosthetic eye. Oh man, that's one of the best ever. One of the best gifts, either one of us has ever gotten. It's so cool. So thanks a lot for our prosthetic eyes, Phil. We still have them. I think there's a picture of us wearing them too. Yeah.

Okay. If you want to get in touch with us just to say hi or to send us something, it doesn't matter. You can go into stuffyoushadknow.com and follow our social links there, I think. And as always, you can send us an email, wrap it up, spank it on the bottom, and send it off to StuffPodcast at iHeartRadio.com. Stuffuchinno is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts, my heart radio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Hello, I'm Chelsea Paredi.

Do you feel chronic existential dread but love talking about delicious snacks? Call me! My podcast is relaunching! Do you fear wild, dangerous animals to the point where you're constantly watching attack videos and reading articles about wild animal attack survivors or those who succumb to attack Colin? We can also discuss reality shows and emergency room footage. Listen to Call Chelsea Paredion, Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

It's JoJoCewa, host of the new podcast, JoJoCewa Now. It's time to get real, up close and personal. I'm gonna be talking to you like I'm writing in a journal. You're gonna get all of the tea and all of the scoop. I'm also gonna be talking to my friends, the people I admire, the people that are trending right now. So you're gonna get like JoJoCewa Now and like now what's going on in the world. It's going to be great. I really hope you like it. You can

listen to Joe just see what now on the I Heart Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hi, I'm Danny Shapiro, host of the Hit Podcast Family Secrets. What happens when the person you idolize turns out to be someone else entirely? And what if you were kidnapped by your own grandparents and left with an endless well of mysteries about yourself and those around you? These are just a few extraordinary puzzles will be exploring in our ninth season of Family Secrets. I hope you'll join me and my astonishing guests for this new season of Family Secrets.

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