BSMC HISTORY
WHO WE REPRESENT

Following the U.S. Civil War, regiments of African-American men known as buffalo soldiers served on the western frontier, battling Indians and protecting settlers. The buffalo soldiers included two regiments of all-black cavalry, the 9th and 10th cavalries, formed after Congress passed legislation in 1866 that allowed African Americans to enlist in the country’s regular peacetime military. The legislation also brought about the creation of four black infantry regiments, eventually consolidated into the 24th and 25th infantries, which often fought alongside the 9th and 10th cavalries. Many of the men in these regiments, commanded primarily by white officers, were among the approximately 180,000 African Americans who served in the Union Army during the Civil War.

For more than two decades in the late 19th century, the 9th and 10th cavalries engaged in military campaigns against hostile Native Americans on the Midwest Plains and across the Southwest. These buffalo soldiers also captured horse and cattle thieves, built roads, protected the U.S. mail, stagecoaches, and wagon trains, all while contending with challenging terrain, inadequate supplies, and discrimination. African American soldiers were paid $13 dollars a month for their service, which was more than they could make in other jobs, but still less than white soldiers.

When the Indian wars ended in the 1890s, the buffalo soldiers went on to fight in Cuba in the 1898 Spanish-American War; participate in General John J. Pershing’s 1916-1917 hunt for Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa; and even acted as rangers in Yosemite and Sequoia national parks.

In 1948, President Harry Truman issued an executive order eliminating racial segregation and discrimination in America’s armed forces and the last all-black units were disbanded during the first half of the 1950s. The nation’s oldest living buffalo soldier, Mark Matthews, died in Washington, D.C. in 2005, at age 111.

The National Association of Buffalo Soldiers & Troopers Motorcycle Club was established in October of 1993, in Chicago, Illinois, by Kenneth “Dream Maker” Thomas, for the purpose of fostering unity and fellowship with motorcyclists in the Chicago area. Since then, the National Buffalo Soldiers & Troopers Motorcycle Club has grown from one chapter, to over 100 nationwide and overseas. We are an organization of professional men and women dedicated to the sport of motorcycle riding and safety. We ride our motorcycles (Iron/steel Horses) to represent the horses that were ridden by the Buffalo Soldiers during the 1800's. Our objective is to educate those that are unfamiliar with the racism, sacrifices, and hardships endured by the Buffalo Soldiers of the 9th and 10th U.S. Cavalries. It is because of their sacrifices, and the sacrifices made by many other African Americans of the past, that we have the opportunities we do today. Our vision is to instill this knowledge into the minds and hearts of our youth of today in hopes of motivating them to become better citizens and leaders of tomorrow. We feel by doing this, the legacy of the Buffalo Soldiers of the past will live on forever.