Michael Badger will separate myth from fact when he gives a presentation on the Buffalo Soldier.
Submitted photo
TROY — The Buffalo Soldiers: Myth and Fact is a story that must be told. Michael Badger is the one to tell it.
The Wednesday, Oct. 2 monthly meeting of the Miami Valley Veterans Museum will feature Michael Badger addressing the topic “Buffalo Soldiers: Myth and Fact.” Area veterans and members of the public are invited. There is no admission charge to the breakfast meeting at 2245 S. County Road 25 A, Troy, next to the driving range.
Badger, whose father, Sgt. Athaniel Washington Badger, was a U.S. Army baker stationed in Okinawa during World War II. He had spoken to Michael about the prejudices he suffered in the military: “being called harsh names and where the common perception was that African American soldiers couldn’t think and couldn’t follow orders.”
In 1960 at age 9, Badger saw director John Ford’s film, “Sergeant Rutledge,” starring Woody Strodes and observed Black Cavalry men fighting. Until that time, his perception was that only white soldiers fought. Of that film, critic Richard Brody wrote, “The greatest American political filmmaker, John Ford, relentlessly dramatized in his westerns, the mental and historical distortion from the country’s violent origins. This included its legacy of racism, which he confronted throughout his career, nowhere more radically than in “Sergeant Rutledge.”
Years later he was a student at the Christ for the Nations Institute, a Bible college in Dallas, Texas. Badger was fortunate to be mentored in the history of the Buffalo Soldiers by Ken Pollard, the director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Buffalo Soldiers Outreach. Lee Abrams Reed, who taught him communication strategies. Brother Elmer Sweat served with him as a co-presenter on the topic of Buffalo Soldiers as a part of outreach to inner-city youths in Dallas.
In his presentation at the museum, Badger will focus on myths and realities about the Buffalo soldiers. According to Badger, some common myths are that white soldiers did not command Buffalo soldiers, that there were no Black officers in the group, and that no Black soldiers earned the Medal of Honor.
The realities are that the Buffalo soldiers were honored and feared by their enemies. There is a longer history of this group than is commonly believed, and there were Black generals and colonels in the group.
Badger will have a display of memorabilia used by the Buffalo soldiers such as a block of Chinese tea, hardtack, rifles, and knives. The display will also include Native American beadwork.
Donuts and coffee, courtesy of the Miami County Veterans Services at 8:30 a.m. and the program at 9 a.m.
