Robert Dixon, Last Surviving Buffalo Soldier, Dies at 103 [View all]
Source: NYT
A member of one of the U.S. Army’s all-Black regiments, formed after the Civil War, he trained West Point cadets in horsemanship during World War II.
By Trip Gabriel
Published Nov. 27, 2024 Updated Nov. 28, 2024, 1:42 a.m. ET
The Rev. Robert W. Dixon Sr., the last known survivor of the U.S. Army’s all-Black regiments known as Buffalo Soldiers, died on Nov. 15 near Albany, N.Y. He was 103.
His wife, Georgia Dixon, said he died at a rehabilitation center.
Mr. Dixon was a corporal in World War II stationed at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where members of the Ninth Cavalry Regiment, composed of African Americans, trained cadets in horseback riding and mounted tactics.
Created after the Civil War, the Army’s all-Black cavalry and infantry regiments were nicknamed “Buffalo Soldiers” by Native Americans who encountered them in the nation’s Western expansion in the post-Civil War 19th century. The name may have been a reference to the soldiers’ curly black hair or to the fierceness that buffalo show in fighting. In either case, the soldiers embraced the name.
Robert Dixon in 2002 at Mount Calvary Baptist Church, in Albany, N.Y., where he was a pastor for 36 years. He was the last known survivor of the U.S. Army’s Black regiments, known as the Buffalo Soldiers.Credit...Luanne M. Ferris/Times Union
ORIGINAL link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/27/us/robert-dixon-dead.html
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