SWIL Awards the 2011 Scholarship to Ms. Jessica Givens of Belleville East High School – May 2011
Ms. Jessica J. Givens, of Belleville East High School is the 2011 recipient of the Southwest Illinois Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club. This year the scholarship was offered to students attending eight metro-east high schools (Belleville East H.S., Belleville West H.S. O’Fallon Township H.S., East Saint Louis Senior H.S., Cahokia H.S., Edwardsville H.S., Alton H.S. and Lovejoy Technology Academy).
Jessica will attend Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA where she will major in Spanish language. While in school shw was an honor roll student and participated in various extra-curricula and church choral activities. She volunteered her free time doing community activities. She traveled with her church to Sandusky, OH to work with Habitat for Humanity and also helped at a Chicago-area Juvenile Detention Center. Jessica maintained a 3.4 grade point average on a 4.0 scale.
We are proud to present this years award to Jessica for her outstanding work.
Rev. Dorris Davis’ Christmas Dinner and Toy Give Away – Dec 2010
The Soldiers were back for the fourth year to take part in the 2010 Reverend Dorris Davis’ Helping Hand Shelter Christmas Dinner and Toy Give-Away. The event was held in the atrium of the East Saint Louis, IL City Hall building. The number of families that came out was less then usual due to the snow, but volunteers were abundant! Everyone that came out had plenty to eat and the kids got plenty of toys for Christmas.
SWIL Honors The Senior Citizens of Brooklyn, Illinois – Nov 2010
The SWIL Buffalo Soldiers honored the senior citizens of Illinois’ oldest Black community, Brooklyn, IL, with a sit-down Thanksgiving Dinner. Also know as “Lovejoy”, it was a stop on the Underground Railroad and is the oldest town incorporated by African Americans in the United States. It has the first African Methodist Episcopal Church, an independent denomination, built west of the Appalachian Mountains and the first in Illinois. Its motto is “Founded by Change, Sustained by Courage”. The Brooklyn Mayor, Nathaniel O’Bannon, Jr. and Illinois State House Representative Eddie Lee Jackson were in attendance at Lovejoy High School for the festivities.
SWIL Buffalo Soldiers Give Thanksgiving Baskets to Local Area Families – Nov 2010
The SWIL Buffalo Soldiers set out on their third annual Thanksgiving Dinner Basket Give-Way to needy familes from Belleville, East St Louis and Cahokia, Illinois. This year the families were selected through local churches. They were given turkeys and all the fixings for a proper Thanksgiving dinner. This gives our club great pride to be in a position to donate these items to these families once again.
Buffalo Soldiers Raise Money For The Susan G. Komen “Race For The Cure” – Jun 2010
The Southwest Illinois and Saint Louis chapters of the Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club joined forces to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Through the generosity of our members and friends we were able to donate over $1100 to this worthy cause. This is just one of the many ways we give back to our communities.
Susan G. Komen fought breast cancer with her heart, body and soul. Throughout her diagnosis, treatments, and endless days in the hospital, she spent her time thinking of ways to make life better for other women battling breast cancer instead of worrying about her own situation. That concern for others continued even as Susan neared the end of her fight. Moved by Susan’s compassion for others and committed to making a difference, Nancy G. Brinker promised her sister that she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever.
That promise is now Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, the global leader of the breast cancer movement, having invested nearly $1.5 billion since inception in 1982. As the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists, we’re working together to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures. Thanks to events like the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure®, and generous contributions from our partners, sponsors and fellow supporters, we have become the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer in the world.
SWIL Soldiers Present a Donation to Fund Raisers for Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital – May 2010
The SWIL Soldiers donated $250 to Belleville-area high school students who held a Teeter-Totter-A-Thon fund raiser in support of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which is located in Memphis, Tennessee. The students took turns on the Teeter-Totters, working in shifts over a 48 hour period and were sponsored by several organizations and individuals.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, founded in 1962, is a leading pediatric treatment and research facility focused on children’s catastrophic diseases. St. Jude was founded by entertainer Danny Thomas on the premise that “no child should die in the dawn of life.” Thomas named the hospital for Saint Jude Thaddeus, the Catholic patron saint of hospitals, desperate cases and lost causes. Thomas was a struggling young entertainer when he knelt in a Detroit church before a statue of St. Jude Thaddeus and asked the saint to “show me my way in life and I will build you a shrine.”
All medically eligible patients who are accepted for treatment at St. Jude are treated without regard to the family’s ability to pay. St. Jude is the only pediatric research center in the United States where families never pay for treatments that are not covered by insurance, and families without insurance are never asked to pay. In addition to providing medical services to eligible patients, St. Jude also assists families with transportation, lodging, and meals. Three separate specially-designed patient housing facilities—Grizzly House for short-term (up to two weeks), Ronald McDonald House for medium-term (two weeks to 3 months), and Target House for long-term (3 months or more)—provide housing for patients and up to three family members, with no cost to the patient. These policies, along with research expenses and other costs, cause the hospital to incur more than $2.4 million in operating costs each day. Around $180,000 is covered by patient insurance, the remaining $2.22 million/day is funded by charitable contributions.
SWIL partners with organizations to restore an historic cemetery
In late 2007 the SWIL chapter became aware of a local area cemetery in East Carondolet, Illinois that possibly held the remains of a Buffalo Soldier. Members of the club rode out to the site and discovered a long forgotten plot of land surrounded by farm fields that was over grown and contained obvious signs of vandalism and grave desecration. The restoration was more than our chapter could accomplish alone.
We sought to find more information and eventually met members of the Flat Creek Missionary Baptist Church of East Carondolet, IL. This church is the oldest Black church in the State of Illinois. It was established in 1809 before Illinois statehood and is still a vibrant place of worship. At one time the plot was used to bury church members and others from the town.
With the involvement of a United States Congressman, County Officials, bordering land owners, a major railroad corporation and the mayors of two adjacent cities; the church members, anthropologists from the University of Illinois, members of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Saint Clair County(IL) Genealogical Society, the Saint Clair County Levee District, the SWIL chapter of Buffalo Soldiers and other interested parties soon gathered at the church to form a committee and hold meeting in order devise a plan to restore the cemetery. Through old records and a discovered broken headstone, a member of the 6th Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery (C.H.A.), Company “I” was found to be buried here.
Sgt. Jack Jackson enlisted on December 8, 1863 and was posted at Natchez, Mississippi. He was one of 76,000 Black soldiers to be enlisted to fight for the Union during the Civil War and was instrumental in recruiting Blacks who were apprehensive about joining the Army. He was a formative figure, known as “Big Jack”. He traveled with White Unionofficers on their recruiting jaunts. Dressed in a sergeant’s Army jacket and striped military pants, armed with a musket and cartridge box, and sitting astride a horse, “Big Jack” was probably the first Black soldier many plantation hands had ever seen, and his appearance created a stir in the slave quarters. He managed to convince many slaves to leave their families and take up arms as members of the Union Army.
He accompanied General Grant at the famous Battle of Milliken’s Bend where his heroism became apparent. A detachment of 1410 men, of whom 160 were Whites, and the remainder were ex-slaves fought Confederate forces at Milliken’s Bend. During the battle “Big Jack” receiveda bullet wound to his head that he survived. The bravery of the Black soldiers during this battle completely revolutionized the sentiment of the Army with regard in the employment of Negro troops.
Records indicate that he was 25 years of age on December 29, 1864 when he married Mary Johnson in Vidalia, Louisiana.
In June of 1865 Jackson submitted to a Field Officers Court Marshall for what appears to be a loss of 83 cents worth of camp equipage. There are no records of a defense of the crime recorded in documents obtained from the National Archives, merely that the punishment was quite severe: having to pay a $10 fine from his pay, and to serve 20 days of hard labor, 10 of which he was to be fed only bread and water.
On May 13, 1886 Jackson finally mustered out of the service having received his last paycheck December 31, 1865. It is not known at this point how he arrived in Illinois. There is one mention in the St. Clair County History – 1881, that the first local store was kept by Misters Green and Jackson and was situated on State Street in the old village of East Carondolet.
Interviews with an elderly owner of one of the oldest Black funeral homes in the area have led us to believethat up to three Black Buffalo Soldiers are buried here. We fully understand that soldiers joining the Army from 1866 to 1944 served during a era when they were referred to as “Buffalo Soldiers”, but these members of The United States Colored Troops deserve our attention because of their sacrifices. The calendar marking their years of service will not delineate them from our name sakes. The small plot of land may contain the graves of up to 1,000 people. Records found to date show burials dating back to 1878. All of these people deserve to rest in peace, in graves that are properly maintained and respected.
