The town of Skagway was born in 1897 after its population quintupled in under a year due to the Klondike gold rush. Balanced on the edge of anarchy, the U.S. Army stationed Company L, a unit of Buffalo Soldiers, there near the end of the gold rush. Buffalo Soldiers in Alaska tells the story of these African American soldiers who kept the peace during a volatile period in America’s resource-rich North. It is a fascinating tale that features white officers and Black soldiers safeguarding U.S. territory, supporting the civil authorities, protecting Native Americans, fighting natural disasters, and serving proudly in America’s last frontier. Despite the discipline and contributions of soldiers who served honorably, Skagway exhibited the era’s persistent racism and maintained a clear color line. However, these Black Regulars carried out their complex and sometimes contradictory mission with a combination of professionalism and restraint that earned the grudging respect of the independently minded citizens of Alaska. The company used the popular sport of baseball to connect with the white citizens of Skagway and in the process gained some measure of acceptance. Though the soldiers left little trace in Skagway, a few remained after their enlistments and achieved success and recognition after settling in other parts of Alaska.  

Born in slavery, Charles Young (1864-1922) was the third black graduate of West Point, the first black U.S. military attache, and the highest-ranking black officer in the Regular Army until his death. Unlike the two black graduates before him, Young went on to a long military career, eventually achieving the rank of colonel. After Young, racial intolerance closed the door to blacks at the academy, and forty-seven years passed before another African American graduated from West Point.
Brian G. Shellum's biography of Young's years at West Point chronicles the enormous challenges that Young faced and provides a valuable window into life at West Point in the 1880s. Academic difficulties, hazing, and social ostracism dogged him throughout his academy years. He succeeded through a combination of focused intellect, hard work, and a sense of humor. By graduation, he had made white friends, and his motivation and determination had won him the grudging respect of many of his classmates and professors.

Until now, scholars of African American and military history have neglected this important U.S. Army trailblazer. Young's experiences at the U.S. Military Academy, his triumph over adversity, and his commitment to success forged the mold for his future achievements as an Army officer, even as the United States slipped further into the degradation and waste of racial intolerance.

An unheralded military hero, Charles Young (1864-1922) was the third black graduate of West Point, the first African American national park superintendent, the first black U.S. military attache, the first African American officer to command a Regular Army regiment, and the highest-ranking black officer in the Regular Army until his death. "Black Officer in a Buffalo Soldier Regiment" tells the story of the man who--willingly or not--served as a standard-bearer for his race in the officer corps for nearly thirty years, and who, if not for racial prejudice, would have become the first African American general. Brian G. Shellum describes how, during his remarkable army career, Young was shuffled among the few assignments deemed suitable for a black officer in a white man's army--the Buffalo Soldier regiments, an African American college, and diplomatic posts in black republics such as Liberia. Nonetheless, he used his experience to establish himself as an exceptional cavalry officer. He was a colonel on the eve of the United States' entry into World War I, when serious medical problems and racial intolerance denied him command and ended his career. Shellum's book seeks to restore a hero to the ranks of military history; at the same time, it informs our understanding of the role of race in the history of the American military.

In the early 1900s, the United States was a place where blacks in the south were systematically disenfranchised by Jim Crow laws and faced daily the threat of violence. The U.S. Army allowed black men to serve as soldiers and non-commissioned officers, and on rare occasions commissioned officers, but institutional racism persisted, and a clear color line prevailed. From 1910 to 1942, black American officers volunteered for a complex and risky enterprise to train and command forces in Liberia, a country founded by freed black American slaves. These officers performed their duties as instruments of imperialism for a country that was, at best, ambivalent about having them serve under arms at home and abroad. African American Officers in Liberia: A Pestiferous Rotation, 1910-1942 by Brian G. Shellum tells the story of seventeen African American officers who trained, reorganized, and commanded the Liberian Frontier Force, whose purpose was to defend Liberia from partition by its colonial neighbors and subjugate the local indigenous groups. The endeavor was financed by the U.S. but directed by the Liberian government. Essentially, the United States extended its newfound imperial reach and policy of “Dollar Diplomacy� to Liberia, a country it considered a U.S protectorate. Shellum explores U.S. foreign policy towards Liberia and the African American diaspora, while detailing the African American military experience in the first half of the twentieth century. Shellum brings to life the story of the African American officers who carried out a dangerous mission in Liberia for an American government that did not treat them as equal citizens even in their homeland, and provides recognition for their important role in preserving the independence of Liberia.