The United States Postal Service released the Buffalo Soldier postage on April 22, 1994, in Dallas, Texas, and three other locations including San Angelo, Texas.  The stamp represented a wider national movement to preserve the memory of these brave soldiers. Local Angelo State University professor (retired) Dr. Virginia Noelke served on the USPS Citizens Advisory Commission for 25 years and played a crucial role in the development as a member of the USPS Citizens Advisory Committee.

The issue of this stamp, based on the artwork of Mort Kuntsler, also featured a special commemorative portfolio with historical narrative. Its release by the U.S. Postal Service came about nearly a century after depictions of Buffalo Soldiers first appeared in the late 1800s. For instance, Frederic Remington’s extensive works of art, Buffalo Bill’s inclusion of Black veterans in his Congress of Rough Riders, late 1890s’ documentary motion picture footage by Thomas Edison showed them marching off to Cuba, a pre-World War I silent feature Trooper of Troop K portrayed a fictional character 10th Cavalry recruit gaining manly virtues during the Punitive Expedition, and a number of other graphic and written works, often aimed at a Black audience, all existed prior to the 1990s. Further, larger than life bronzes, such as one of the first to be erected in the 1970s at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, stood tall followed by many other memorials across the nation. In fact, nine statues depicting Buffalo Soldiers had been erected since 1977, compared to only three Civil War–era monuments commemorating Black soldiers had been erected. The most notable of these, unveiled to much fanfare on July 25, 1992, at Fort Leavenworth, as one historian concluded: “was accompanied by a veritable explosion of buffalo soldier commemorations including museum displays, documentaries, newspaper and journal articles, and reenactment societies.” In fact, Kuntsler, took his inspiration for the stamp rendering from the Leavenworth monumental statue.   

Further Reading:

Bruce A. Glasrud and Michael N. Searles, eds., Buffalo Soldiers in the West: A Black Soldiers Anthology (College Station, TX:  Texas A&M University Press, 2007).

Frank N. Schubert, “Remembering the Buffalo Soldiers: Memorials to Black Soldiers of the Indian-War Era,” in Eli Paul, ed., The Frontier Army (Pierre: South Dakota Historical Society Press, 2019).