Mayor Proclaims July 28 as National Buffalo Soldier Day

SAN ANGELO, TX — Mayor Brenda Gunter proclaimed July 28, 2024, as National Buffalo Soldier Day in San Angelo at a City Council meeting Tuesday.

No city is more synonymous with Buffalo Soldiers than San Angelo.

After the U.S. Congress passed the Army Organization Act on July 28, 1866 — allowing black men to serve in all-black military regiments — many of those men served at San Angelo's Fort Concho on the West Texas frontier between 1868 and 1885.

They came to be known as Buffalo Soldiers, given the name by Native Americans in the area.

More than 100 years later, U.S. Congress declared July 28 as Buffalo Soldiers Day in 1992.

Last year, the San Angelo NAACP Buffalo Soldier Memorial was dedicated on July 28. The monument is located at El Paseo de Santa Angela Park, fittingly across the street from Fort Concho.

"The legacy of the Buffalo Soldiers will forever live on through this memorial," Gunter said during Tuesday's proclamation. "I do hereby proclaim July 28, 2024, as National Buffalo Soldier Day in San Angelo, Texas, and call this observance to the attention of all our citizens."

There will be a one-year anniversary celebration held at the memorial at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 28, followed by an event at 2:30 p.m. at Fort Concho.