Buffalo Soldiers have been mythologized in movies, television programs, and popular songs. Despite this romanticism, the history of Buffalo Soldiers is complex, and their stories are relevant and worthy of deeper understanding.

For Race and Country: Buffalo Soldiers in California explores the surprising history surrounding all-Black US Army regiments whose members—both in and out of uniform—left powerful traces in the Golden State. Venturing beyond myths, the exhibition confronts the role of Black soldiers in the Army’s history of violence against Native American people, explores historical debates in the Black community over participation in wars, and exposes cracks in a society permeated by racism, in which African American soldiers faced the searing conflict between commitment to equality for their people and to the country they chose to serve. Such is the “double life” African Americans live, in the words of scholar W.E.B. Du Bois, including in the armed forces.

Through artifacts, audio interviews, photographs, historical records, period uniforms, newspapers, musical scores, and media representations, the exhibition presents a sweeping narrative of Black soldiers and their families who made California home during the era of government-sanctioned racial segregation in the US military. For Race and Country highlights Californians, from Northern California to the Mexican border, whose little-known influence transformed the state, and the nation.

For Race and Country: Buffalo Soldiers in California is curated by Susan D. Anderson, history curator, with consultant Anthony J. Powell and researcher Caroline Collins.

CAAM recently interviewed Susan D. Anderson and Anthony Powell about this exhibition: