Celebrating Black History Month: Brigadier General Charles Young
Photo source: Library of Congress
We’re continuing our mini-series celebrating Black History here at the Hub with another figure from here in Ohio, Brigadier General Charles Young.
Young’s father fought in the Civil War before moving his family from Kentucky to Ripley, Ohio. Young was the first black student to graduate from a white high school in Ripley and was encouraged to apply to West Point and became the third African-American to graduate from the institution in 1889.
In 1903, Young became the first African-American appointed to superintendent of the National Parks. Park managment was the responsibility of the U.S. Army beginning in 1891. It fell under Young’s leadership the project of developing the Sequoia and General Grant national parks. He worked tirelessly to improve the road which carried wagons through the Giant Forest which is now known as Three Rivers, California. Young recognized that the importance of preserving the forest and natural landscape.
“Indeed, a journey through this park and the Sierra Forest Reserve to the Mount Whitney country will convince even the least thoughtful man of the needfulness of preserving these mountains just as they are, with their clothing of trees, shrubs, rocks, and vines, and of their importance to the valleys below as reservoirs for storage of water for agricultural and domestic purposes. In this, lies the necessity of forest preservation.”
His work on the wagon road maintence also introduced tourism into the National Parks, enthusiam that continues to this day. The impacts made on our National Parks system by Young are just one small piece of an extraordinary life. Interested in reading more about Charles Young? Learn more from Brian Shellum’s Black Officer in a Buffalo Soldier Regiment: The Military Career of Charles Young.