William & Mary exhibit on Buffalo Soldiers in PH-US War 1899

“Buffalo Soldiers” of the U.S. Army’s all-black 9th Calvary Regiment take a group photo before deploying from San Francisco to participate in combat operations in the Philippine-American War. U.S. ARMY CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY

VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia — Photographs and illustrations showing the lives of “Buffalo Soldiers” or African-American soldiers, who fought in the Philippines between 1899 and 1902 during the Philippine-American War, are on display in Swem Library’s Botetourt Gallery as part of an exhibit organized by the College of 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.

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

Collaborating on the exhibit are the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, Norfolk State University, the Filipino American National Historical Society (Hampton Roads Chapter) and W&M.

Members of FANHS Roads Chapter led by Dr. April T. Manalang of Norfolk State University did the research, writing and curation for the project. The lead historian f was Jeffrey Acosta an adjunct instructor of U.S. History at Tidewater Community College and vice president of FANHS-HR chapter.

According to official records of the Presidio of San Francisco, many black leaders and black-owned newspapers like the Indianapolis Freeman supported the inclusion of African-American soldiers in the war that would make the Philippines an American colony.

However, many prominent African-American political activists of that time like Ida B. Wells-Bartlett condemned America’s government as hypocritical for using black soldiers as tools to enlarge its territory.

According to Acosta, “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 Aguinaldo’s army of the 1^st Philippine Republic.” Some black soldiers also defected to the Filipino forces, as a result of the racism they had experienced at home.