Black Cadet in a White Bastion: Charles Young at West Point
Charles Young (1864-1922) was the third African American West Point graduate and the only one from the nineteenth century who had a long military career (1889-1922). He was born in slavery, which his father fled to serve with Union forces in the Civil War, thereby acquiring, he believed, the discipline and the capital to live as a free man. An excellent student, Young determined to get the best education possible, though his family couldn't afford college. Placing second in his district in the West Point entrance examinations, he got the appointment when the first-ranked candidate resigned. Later graduate Shellum draws on his own West Point knowledge in vividly portraying the difficulties Young encountered, and he points up Young's determination and devotion to his country. Young, who died a colonel on active duty, was so thoroughly or deliberately forgotten by the outbreak of World War II that Congress and the War Department acted as if black officers had never been heard of. Shellum has put his keyboard to good use.Frieda MurrayCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved