News — Buffalo

On July 28, 1866, the Thirty-Ninth Congress passed the Act to increase and fix the Military Peace Establishment of the United States; thus the federal government created six all-Colored Army Regiments. The units identified as the 9th and 10th Colored Cavalry Regiments and the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st Colored Infantry Regiments. Each regiment would have approximately 1,000 black soldiers led by white officers.

This was the first time in the history of the U.S. Army that black soldiers became a permanent part of the military and as such was the most historically significant change in the makeup of the United States Army immediately after the U.S. Civil War. The impetus for creating the units was the gallant service of over 200,000 black soldiers during that 1861-1865 conflict.

Orders sent to Maj. Gens. William T. Sherman and Philip H. Sheridan to raise four of these regiments. In Sherman’s Military Division of the Missouri, the 38th Infantry organized at Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, and the 10th Cavalry at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., while Sheridan’s Department of the Gulf provided the 39th Infantry and the 9th Cavalry, both organized in New Orleans.

Elsewhere, the 40th Infantry recruited largely in Baltimore and Washington, (Department of Washington) while the 41st Infantry, taking most of its men from Kentucky and Louisiana, concentrated at Baton Rouge and Greenville, LA, with Sheridan’s Department of the Gulf.

The initial four black regiments, the Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, Fortieth and Forty-first, served throughout the south and the west during the Reconstruction period. Moreover, these units served as an important experiment, testing the ability of black soldiers to serve in the United States Army.

The Thirty-Eighth Infantry commander was Colonel William B. Hazen; the Thirty-Ninth Infantry commander was Colonel Joseph A Mower; the Fortieth Infantry commander was Colonel Nelson Miles, and the Forty-First Infantry commander was Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie.

In 1869 Congress, passing the Army Appropriation Act, deciding to further reduce the peacetime Army to reduce costs, passed another army reorganization bill which provided for the reduction of the entire infantry to twenty-five regiments. General Sherman, now the Commanding General of the Army, noting that the law did not specify the survival of any of the colored infantry regiments, quickly ordered the 38th Infantry Regiment stationed in Kansas and New Mexico, transferred to Fort McKavett, Texas to merge with the 41st Infantry to form the new 24th Infantry Regiment. The 40th Infantry in Goldsboro, North Carolina traveled by rail to New Orleans where it merged with the 39th Infantry, to form the new 25th Infantry.

This action guaranteed that at least two all-black Infantry units remained in the peacetime U.S. Army. The 24th established its first headquarters at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri under the command of Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie. The 25th established its first headquarters at Jackson Barracks, Louisiana under the command of Colonel Joseph S. Mower. Incidentally, the 9th Cavalry Commander was Colonel Edward Hatch and the 10th Cavalry Commander was Colonel Benjamin Grierson.

These infantry units along with the 9th and 10th Cavalry regiments then entered into a period of frontier duty in almost every state and territory west of the 100th meridian including Alaska and Hawaii and in a few eastern locations such as Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont, Madison Barracks Sackett Harbor New York and military stations around Washington, D.C. (Fort Meyer). All four units came together to participate in the Spanish American War (1898) and the subsequent successful Filipino War (1899-1902). These units continued to participate in U.S. military operations in the early 20th Century including the Punitive Expedition against Francisco (Pancho) Villa and his forces in Northern Mexico in 1916.

Saniyya Dennis, a SUNY Buffalo State College student from the Bronx who disappeared last month, died by apparent suicide, authorities said Thursday.

“It appears that this poor girl took her own life,” Erie County District Attorney John Flynn told reporters at a news conference.

He said although officials have not located the body of the 19-year-old, they believe she took her own life following a timeline of her last hours before she went missing.

According to Flynn, Dennis, on the afternoon of April 24, got into an argument with her boyfriend in New York City over the phone. She called him about 59 times but he didn’t respond, Flynn said. Dennis then called another male friend in New York City and told him she wanted to kill herself, Flynn said.

The two talked for several hours before Dennis said she had thought it over and wouldn’t end her life. About 11 p.m. ET, Dennis was captured on campus surveillance video leaving her dorm at the SUNY Buffalo State College. She subsequently threw away “personal items that would lead someone to believe that she was not returning to the dorm,” Flynn said.

Video from the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority then showed her riding two different buses heading toward Niagara Falls. She was alone. She was later picked up by cameras around midnight walking toward Goat Island, where her cell last pinged, Flynn said. The male friend, at around 12:18 a.m., sent her text that read, “Call me back or my next call is to Buffalo PD.”

The male friend called her. She answered and said that she was going to jump off a bridge, Flynn said. The two talked for about an hour before Dennis told him that she was on the bus going back home. Phone records show that was false, according to DA.

Her phone left the network at about 1:20 a.m. April 25. The DA said this means that it was either destroyed or turned off. On April 26, Dennis’s family members reported her missing to Buffalo State Police, leading to an investigation, Flynn said.

Search dogs found Dennis’ scent near Goat Island. Authorities now believe she went over the falls, with her body likely pinned on the rocks below. Flynn said authorities may never find her body because of the rocks below the area. “There is a possibility that if we believe what happened happened, we may never find her body,” he said. “That’s a possibility.”

Dennis’ parents were made aware of the findings on Wednesday afternoon, the DA said.

At a news conference last Friday, Dennis’s family members said they were “baffled as to what’s going on.”

“Saniyya worked two jobs. She was a mechanical engineer major. She was very focused on her studies,” Keyora, Dennis’s sister, said. “She was a good friend. A good person. She has a good heart.”

Buffalo Police officer Cariol Horne, who was fired in 2008 for stopping a White officer’s attempt to choke a Black suspect, will receive her back pay and pension after winning a lawsuit on Tuesday.

The New York State Supreme Court vacated an earlier court ruling upholding her dismissal. Judge Dennis Ward, in his ruling, wrote that “the City of Buffalo has recognized the error and has acknowledged the need to undo an injustice from the past. The legal system can at the very least be the mechanism to help justice prevail, even if belatedly.”

“While the Eric Garners and the George Floyds of the world never had a chance for a ‘do-over,’ at least here the correction can be done,” Ward wrote.

Horne made headlines in 2006 when she stopped officer Greg Kwiatkowski’s chokehold on Neal Mack. “Neal Mack looked like he was about to die,” Horne told “CBS This Morning” in an interview in 2020. “So had I not stepped in, he possibly could have. He was handcuffed and being choked.”

Two years after the incident, Horne was fired, some months before she was to receive her full pension. Horne had served on the Buffalo police force for 19 of the 20 years that is required to get a pension.

According to CBS, Kwiatkowski sued Horne and her lawyer for defamation. In 2011, a judge found that Horne’s lawyer made some statements that were deemed defamatory and false, including claims that Horne “saved the life of a suspect who was already in handcuffs and was being choked out by officer Greg Kwiatkowski.”

But Mack told CBS last year that Horne did save his life. “He was choking me. I was handcuffed. Cariol Horne said, ‘You killing him, Greg,’ and she reached over and tried to grab his hand around my neck,” Mack recalled.

In 2012, Mack sued five officers involved in his arrest. A jury found no wrongdoing in a ruling of 5 to 1. Kwiatkowski in 2018 was sentenced to four months in federal prison for a 2009 incident in which he used “unlawful and unreasonable force” against four Black teens.

Ward in his Tuesday ruling said knowledge wasn’t made available during “the original determinations in this case by both the hearing officer and this court.”

“Likewise, the current societal view toward the use of chokeholds and physical force in effecting arrests along with the City of Buffalo’s expression of specific disapproval of such force by legislative enactment, has altered the landscape,” Ward added, according to CBS.

After 13 years, Horne will now receive her back pay and benefits through August 4, 2010. “My vindication comes at a 15 year cost, but what has been gained could not be measured,” she said after the ruling. “I never wanted another Police Officer to go through what I had gone through for doing the right thing.”

Horne told CNN last year that she had five children and “lost everything but [the suspect] did not lose his life.”

“So, if I have nothing else to live for in life, at least I can know that I did the right thing and that [he] still breathes.”

Sheila Brown walked out of WUFO in Buffalo, New York, after working at the radio station for 14 years. She left after the station changed management and their operations were not in line with her vision. Brown however plans of returning to the station had but was not sure in what capacity. After eight years, she came back and purchased the station. Today, she is the first Black woman to own a radio station in Buffalo, New York.

According to reports, she started her career at the station in the ’80s. True to her vow, Brown returned and bought the station. “I looked at the building and I waved and said, don’t worry baby, I’ll be back,’” Brown told reporters. 

It was not an easy journey for the Buffalo native who grew up in Hamlin Park. The banks did not believe in her vision and at a point, she was told to revise her business plan. Her church and Bishop had faith in her from the onset.

“I went through everything, we had banks say no like three times before they said yes, and credit unions said no your business plan needs to be updated, but True Bethel and Bishop Daris Pridgen, and they had faith in me.”

Not only has Brown taken over the station which she worked hard to get, but she has also elevated their frequency and added an FM channel to it in partnership with Power 96.5. Now the WUFO brand is reaching more folks than it has over the years.

This has made it more attractive and lucrative because advertisers know they can reach millions with the new visibility. Also, many influencers and popular DJs have walked through their doors for business.

WUFO is certainly going places under the leadership of Brown. Prominent figures are interviewed at the station and the station hosts a weekly talk with the mayor. The station runs the WUFO history collectible containing about 60 years of WUFO memorabilia.

Brown admits that being the youngest of three siblings and growing up in an extremely supportive family gave her the confidence she needs to take on the world.

She grew up wanting to pursue greater exploits. “My uncles coming to see us would go hey here comes our superstar,” she said. “Not saying it to boost me but just positive affirmation, so I never was afraid of anything I was going to do.”

Her only reservation is, it has been a long time coming for her to own the station but that should not have been the case. This only goes to show there are many aspects of our potential as Black people and women to be precise that we are yet to explore.

Vice President Kamala Harris is certainly proud to be the first Black-Asian female second in command in the country and she certainly has made it clear she does not want to be the last. The same goes for Brown who intends on using her platform to open more doors for many who aspire to step into their greatness.

“It feels good, but it’s sad in 2021 we’re still talking about the first if anything, but I’m just proud that the lord used me to be the first woman of color to own a radio station,” shared Brown. “The Vice President said she might be the first but not the last so my goal is to prep other people.”