Buffalo Soldiers: Fighting on Two Fronts explores the often-contradictory role played by Black soldiers throughout American history. Established by Congress, the 14th Amendment of 1886 promised citizenship in exchange for enlistment, prompting many African American men to serve.
The film weaves together the testimony of historians, experts and descendants of the Buffalo Soldiers with archival photographs, reenactments, and animation to tell the story of how newly free Black Americans enlisted in the U.S. Army, and in the process helped to both fulfill America’s Manifest Destiny and disrupt the lives of indigenous peoples at home and abroad. The indigenous American people who fought against these troops recalled their dark, curly hair, resembling a buffalo’s coat, along with their fierce nature of fighting, and thereby dubbed them as “buffalo soldiers.”
The Buffalo Soldiers still served their country in spite of having faced structural and social barriers to equal opportunity and fair treatment in a Jim Crow Era. Black soldiers helped lead the United States expansion westward; they built and guarded the Pacific Railroad and served as park rangers in places like Yosemite before the U.S. government established the National Park Service. These soldiers fought bravely in the Indian Wars, the Spanish-American War, World War I & World War II. However, the Buffalo Soldiers also participated in the subjugation of Indigenous peoples as the United States appropriated tribal land, the persecution of striking silver miners in Idaho, and against Filipinos fighting for independence during the Spanish-American War, resulting in a complicated legacy.
Producer: Christopher Hastings, Dru Holley, Debra M. Simon, Dan Evans
Executive Producer: Christopher Hastings
Production Company: GBH World Channel
Copyright Year: 2023
Rating: TV-14
Director: Dru Holley
Narrator: Ayanna Berkshire
Actors: Dave Fennoy, Garfield Maitland, Princeton Nunnery, Joetta Wright, Anthony Thomas, Richard Howard, Leah Arscott, Billy Dun, Thomas Bell, Corinne Evans, Greg James, Dan Evans
Writers: Dru Holley, Barbara Multer-Wellin
Number of Discs: 1
Length: 90 minutes
Number of Episodes: 1
Subtitle Languages: English (SDH)
DVI: N
Audio Format: Stereo
Aspect Ratio: 16x9 Widescreen