Scope and Content Note
The collection relating to the 92nd Infantry Division, an African-American unit of the segregated United States Army, spans 1926-2007, with most of the material focused on the division’s service during World War II and bulking largest between 1942 and 2000. The collection includes correspondence, newspapers and news clippings, photographs, exhibit material, division records, and material generated by the division’s veterans’ association, the Ninety-Second Infantry Division World War II Association.
The division saw heavy combat in Tuscany, Northern Italy, during 1943-1945. The general correspondence includes a report of Vernon J. Baker to his commanding general in which he relates the action for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in 1945 and eventually the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1996. Much of the general correspondence relates to upgrading the medals of soldiers denied recognition because of bureaucratic mistakes and racism.
The division’s other Medal of Honor recipient, John R. Fox, is documented in a file that includes a poster relating to ceremonies in his honor conducted in 2000 by the town of Barga, where he was killed in action.
Veterans of the division represented in the general correspondence include Spencer Moore and A. William Perry, who donated the records to the Library, and author and journalist Hiram L. Tanner. Other correspondents include Richard H. Kohn, Barry R. McCaffrey, and Colin L. Powell.
The 92nd was nicknamed the "Buffalo Soldiers Division" in honor of African-American troops who served in the American West after the Civil War. During World War II the division published The Buffalo while in training, particularly at Fort Huachuca in Arizona, and under combat conditions in the Northern Italian theater. The collection includes several examples of The Buffalo in newspaper, newsletter, and magazine formats, and there is an extensive file on Fort Huachuca.
The articles and newspaper clippings cover a gamut of African-American military and civilian experiences during World War II and the postwar era. Included is a file on Lawnside, New Jersey, an incorporated African-American town in Camden County, that contains 1955-1956 editions of the Lawnside Chronicle.
The newsletter of the division's veterans organization, the Ninety-Second Infantry Division World War II Association, is also called The Buffalo, and there is a considerable run of the publication in an Addition file. Also in the Addition are photographs, printed matter, and material related to reunions that were not included in the collection when it was first processed.