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Colonel Charles Young's home in Xenia, Ohio, west of Wilberforce University. Young and his family called their home "Youngsholm". |
I completed my project on Colonel Young over 32 years ago when I was pregnant with my daughter, Fatuma Sanneh, who is now an American diplomat. Her eldest brother, my son Michael Williams by my first marriage, ran the printing press for his very pregnant mother in 1975 so that I could produce the small, limited edition of my etching folio on Colonel Young. Michael was 11 years old at the time; he is now a forensic chemist with the Detroit Police Department. His brother, my son Pap Morro Sanneh, was conceived by my husband Sidi Sanneh and me while we were living in ''Youngsholm''. Pap Morro is now a representative for a Japanese pharmaceutical company. So you can see that Young's story has become a great part of my own life's journey. My children and I returned to Young's home on June 12, 1994 when the Atlanta Buffalo Soldiers reenacted Young's historic horseback ride to Washington, D.C. At that time, we were pleased to learn that the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity has purchased the home and transformed it into the Museum of African American Military History as a lasting historic tribute to Colonel Charles Young, who was also a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. I wrote the following article in 1976 as a project background abstract for my play/TV proposal on Colonel Charles Young's life. At that time, it was my hope that the play would be produced as a mini-series on a national television network. However, the TV mini-series has yet to be produced. |
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Some
things in life we do because we want to; however, some things we do
because we have to - not because someone makes us but because we have
given ourselves no other choice. This story has been such a work for me. I
am now convinced that the strange circumstances that life seems to place
before us, from time to time, are not at all “chance situations.” My
admitted obsession with the life of Colonel Charles Young grew out of what
seemed “chance situations.”
In February of 1972, I moved with my family from Detroit to an old farm house near Wilberforce University in Ohio where my husband was studying. At that time, the only knowledge I had concerning the house was that it was called, the “Old Young Farm House” in honor of the once famous African American colonel who had once lived there. I also learned that prior to the time of the Young’s residence the house had been a station on the Underground Railroad. These facts alone were enough to stir my imagination and as soon as we settled down, I was off exploring. I immediately found the house and its contents fascinating beyond my wildest expectations. However, my interest in the Colonel did not grow into enchantment until I met our now dear friend, Mrs. Mabel Wiggins, who lived in another part of the house. Mabel had lived with Mrs. Ada Young, Colonel Young’s widow, and her children while she attended Wilberforce University as a young student. Mabel, later in life, returned to make her home with the Youngs as a roomer in the home. It was Mabel’s warm stories, told to my son Michael and myself, that first sparked my interest in the Colonel as an individual whose documents and memoirs must be preserved. A few
months before we were to leave the Colonel’s home, I had a visit from a
close friend, Wanda Bethea, from New York. It was Wanda who first urged me
to do something on the Colonel—telling me that as an artist I had a
commitment to help preserve his memory. By the time I left Ohio in January
of 1973, I realized that literally all of the Colonel’s documents remained
in his home and had not been given the academic attention they deserve. It
was not until nearly a year later, after the birth of my second son, Pap
Morro, that I was to receive further encouragement to start a body of work
on the Colonel. By this time my family had moved to Madison, Wisconsin,
and I had given up teaching and joined my husband as another graduate
student at the University of Wisconsin.
New encouragement to do some
work on the Colonel came from my etching professor, Mr. Warrington
Colescott. Since Fine Arts was my major area of concentration, it seemed
logical to do a few etchings on the Colonel. While working on this first
body of work, I learned that the Colonel’s home had been damaged in a
tornado that leveled over half of the town of Xenia, Ohio on April 3,
1974. I immediately contacted Mrs. Wiggins concerning the tornado and
learned that no one then living in the house had been injured, however,
there had been some rather extensive damage to its structure. The knowledge that the storm could have erased, in seconds, practically all that remained of the Colonel’s documents inspired me to expansion of my work. Far too much of the history of my people is lost; knowledge that not only contributes to the growth of our own children, but to the growth of the world’s children. My expanded work has taken me into months of extensive research, an entire suite of prints and this "unconventional" account of the life of Colonel Young. Joann Sanneh | |
