SAN ANGELO, Texas — In honor Black History Month, the San Angelo NAACP chapter and the National Historic Landmark Fort Concho Museum celebrated Buffalo Solider Heritage Day with a presentation and exhibit that included a pin worn by James Walker of San Angelo, who opened up the first African American church.
The San Angelo NAACP chapter joined the Fort Concho Museum once again to bring a bit of history to area residents and visitors. Photographs, pins, jackets and documents were part of the presentation and exhibit on Sunday. Sherley Spears states, “There are a lot of Buffalo Soldiers that were here at the fort, several of them are at the Fairmount Cemetery and that in itself is an interesting thing that they allowed African American soldiers to be buried over there.” In addition to the exhibit she had a presentation that showed how some of the music was brought over from Africa through slavery.
The pieces in the exhibit are part of the much larger Douglas McChristian Collection which had a handful of pieces that were worn, used, or carried by the Buffalo Soldiers. Cory Robinson, Curator of History for the museum has been working there for 18 years and curator for almost four, he states, " It's a good opportunity to bring national history of the African American soldier and local history of the African American soldier to people here in San Angelo"
