From Pulpit To Public Square

When I was growing up in Chicago in the 1950s, I discovered a military saber (sword) in my grandmother's closet. My grandmother, Ella Alford was born in Kentucky in 1878; just one generation removed from slavery. She never spoke with me about growing up in a Jim Crow state during the years that black historian Rayford Logan referred to as "the nadir": the darkest and deadliest time to be Black in America (1895-1945). As a result, she never told me and I never asked her why she had a saber in her closet. The saber was inside a brass holder wrapped inside a red velvet cloth. I never found out about that saber until many years later.

A genealogist named Dr. Deborah Abbott provided the answer. She did a study of my family tree coinciding with my 20th pastoral anniversary at Antioch Baptist Church here in Cleveland. Her research found a man named Elijah Alford who served as a sergeant with the United States Colored Troops (USCT) during the Civil War. Sergeant Alford was my grandmother's father-in-law. She was married to James Alford, Elijah Alford's son.

Sergeants were presented a saber when they reached that rank. The saber in my grandmother's closet in Chicago undoubtedly belonged to my great-grandfather Elijah Alford who carried it while serving in the Union Army.

During Black History Month 2024, this is my black history story. I am a descendant of a member of the United States Colored Troops. He served in the 116th Infantry stationed at Camp Nelson in Kentucky between 1864-1867.

I watched the movie Glory about the 54th regiment of USCT from Massachusetts when it was released in 1989. That was well before I discovered Elijah Alford and learned more about the existence of the USCT. I had heard about the 180,000 black soldiers, both freemen and runaway slaves that fought for the Union during the Civil War and proved to be decisive in defeating the Confederate Army. I had seen photographs of those USCT wearing their Union Army uniforms and holding their rifles. I later learned while watching the Ken Burns film on the Civil War that several members of the USCT were at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia in April of 1865 when Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant effectively ending the Civil War. That must have been an unbearable sight to see for a Confederate general who had fought a war for four years for the right to hold black people in slavery!

All that history was connected to a saber in my grandmother's closet in Chicago almost 100 years after these events took place. Why had I not learned about the USCT while studying American history in high school? Why were the USCT never featured in the endless John Wayne movies about the role of the U.S. Cavalry both during and after the Civil War? Why was I unaware of a monument in Washington, DC dedicated to the USCT of the Civil War on which Elijah Alford's name is engraved?

Why did I not know that after the Civil War, the USCT were recommissioned as the 10th and 11th U.S. Cavalry that was instrumental in fighting the Indian wars that included the defeat of the Apaches and their feared leader Geronimo?

None of that was in the curriculum in Chicago nor on any movie or TV screen I ever watched. It was the Native Americans against whom they fought that gave those black soldiers the name of Buffalo Soldiers, both because of the texture of their hair and the ferocity with which they fought.

Why did I not know that men from the 10th Cavalry fought with Theodore Roosevelt in the Spanish American War in Cuba and rode with him in the famous charge up San Juan Hill? I recently found out, also thanks to a Ken Burns film, that when Roosevelt posed for a photograph with the soldiers he rode with in that battle, the members of the 10th Cavalry were placed in a position where they could easily be edited out after that now famous photograph had been taken.

It appears that trying to erase aspects of black history did not start with Ron Desantis and the MAGA Republicans.

All of this history is connected to that saber in my grandmother's closet.

I wish I could go back and hold that saber again now that I know all it represents in both my family history and the history of this country. Regrettably, it was taken from my grandmother's closet during a burglary of the home where we lived. Someone with no family connection to that saber probably sold it or pawned it off for a few dollars. Whoever bought it may have resold it or donated it to a place that collects military memorabilia. Either way, it is certain they were not related to Elijah Alford or his daughter-in-law Ella Alford who was my grandmother.

I guess there is more than one way that black history can be stolen! 

EDITOR's Notes:

Tune in to It's About Justice Saturday, February 24th from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. on WRUW FM 91.1. to hear Dr. Deborah Abbott and Rev. McMickle discuss some of her findings. You will also receive details on how to begin your own genealogy, including important websites. Listen online at wruw.org

Thumbnail photo accompanying this story is of a Kentucky soldier who enlisted in the US Colored Infantry Regiment of the Union Army during the Civil War.  Visit here for more info.

R E C E N T:

A call for pastoral equity in the Black Church

Trump creeping closer to white supremacy advocacy