Posted on 07/19/2009 6:34:39 AM PDT by SandRat
FORT HUACHUCA — For years, Building 66050 has been vacant.
It is deteriorating, but members of the Southwest Association of Buffalo Soldiers are determined to save the structure, which during World War II housed the Colored Officers Club.
The building, its paint now peeling, windows broken and interior unsafe, is where black entertainers such as Lena Horne would come to the post to perform for black soldiers when the Army was segregated.
The fort is where two black divisions, the 92nd and 93rd, trained before heading off to combat in World War II. One division went to Italy and the other to the Pacific Theater.
For years, the association has been endeavoring to save the building, one of the last of hundreds of World War II structures on the fort.
Association President Joan Way said the group has “a little more than $100,000” in donations for the project.
But she admitted that’s a tiny amount, since $5 million is needed to meet conditions of the Army Corps of Engineers.
The association must restore the facility by bringing it up to code, ensure its exterior and interior are historically accurate and have funds to operate the building, including utility and staffing costs.
The long-range goal is to make the facility an education center that would keep alive the history of the black soldiers who served at the fort in the time of segregation.
Many volunteer hours have been put in to remove debris around the building, and some work has been done inside to remove such things as dangerously hanging lights.
Saving the building depends upon donations because the Army will not fund the efforts, since Congress has ordered the demolition of all World War II structures except one former training installation and others still in use and in good shape.
It was the only building specifically constructed during World War II as a club for servicemen then known as colored officers.
On Saturday, a small group gathered outside the facility to present two Spirit of the Buffalo Soldier Awards.
One was for the manager of the Outback Steakhouse for allowing the eatery to be used to raise $6,000 for the association recently. The manager could not make the event.
Association member Tony Sanders, who emceed Saturday’s event, said the only thing the association had to do for that fundraiser was “to bring people to the table,” and the restaurant staff did the rest.
Another award went to Joe Larson, administrator of the state-operated Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery, and his staff for having a number of soldiers’ remains from the late 1800s brought to Sierra Vista from a long unused cemetery in Tucson. The Tucson cemetery was going to be paved over for a parking lot.
One set of remains was that of a Buffalo Soldier, the name black soldiers of that period were given by Indians.
Dressed in an 1880s-style uniform, Frank Bothwell, a retired sergeant major, gave an impassioned plea in support of the effort to save the building.
The history of Fort Huachuca is tied to black soldiers who served in the Army during segregation from the late 1870s until the military was desegregated in the 1950s, Bothwell explained.
The past cannot be forgotten, and saving the building will mean the remembrance of many black soldiers who served not only at the fort but elsewhere in the Army when segregation was the order of the day, Bothwell said.
The black history of segregated military service to the country has been largely torn down, he said.
Every major black unit in Army history from after the Civil War until the end of segregation served at the fort at one time.
Way said she hopes a new Web site on saving the building will bring in funds.
Looking from outside into the dark old ballroom where Horne sang, she said: “Time is running out.”
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Find more information about the Southwest Association of Buffalo Soldiers:
www.swabuffalosoldiers.org
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Herald/Review senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.
Campaign to save deteriorating, historic Colored Officers Club on Fort Huachuca faces funding crisis
Isn’t this part of 0bama’s stimulus program?
If not, why not?
Why don’t the rich black folk of entertainment and sports pick up the tab?
Actually with the exception of Oprah I don’t recall any kind of donations from these folk for anything, but I could have missed it to be sure.
Bump
See reply #4.
I’ve never been big of saving run down buildings that are no longer useful; including this one. I seriously doubt the Army ever had intentions of this building being usable for any real length of time to begin with.
It was apparently constructed either just prior to WW II or during the war. Europeans would laugh at the thought that such a building would warrant saving.
What about the historically white officer’s club?
Huachuca has, as the article noted, been home of virtually every black unit in the US Army since the fort was founded. (Burnside I believe. The fort was sited because of it's 'healthy airs' and strategic location. Step out the back door and you may be in mexico.)
It was also been home to Navajo scouts (colors retired there) and provided a base for post Civil War security.
"Black history" is a real thing there. And, if you check it out, the middle 20th century saw a thriving black culture in the US...left out of mainstream America a 'separate but similar' society existed. That society sent it's sons to war just like "ours" did and they earned equality first in the military as a result.
I'd say that was fairly significant, and certainly indicates a positive contribution.
Unfortunately, post 1947 liberal policies put an end to that simply by redefining citizens into victim and oppressor, then blurring citizenship further by ignoring the fort's earlier roles such as border security.
PS: This or a nearly identical article was posted some time ago in FR, need to follow up to see if it is a rehash or an update.
Either that or the 'historically white NCO club' was a nice little museum many, many, years ago.
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The fort is where two black divisions, the 92nd and 93rd, trained before heading off to combat in World War II. One division went to Italy and the other to the Pacific Theater.Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. |
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