West Point holds a long history. It’s where duty, honor and country are held to the highest level. But it’s one that didn’t always publicly acknowledge the sacrifices of all who served. 

The history of the unsung heroes on horseback, now etched in bronze, stands tall over the academy. It’s an honor that’s long overdue. Lt. Col. Rory McGovern is the chief of the American History Division at West Point. He explains how Black soldiers have fought in nearly every major military conflict in the country dating back to the colonial days.

"At the time the Buffalo Soldiers were here, West Point was the beating heat of the army,” McGovern said.

The Buffalo Soldiers were known as some of the U.S. Army’s fiercest fighters and led the nation’s expansion west. The group was an all-Black cavalry created after the U.S. Civil War, when the Army did not fully accept men of color. 

“That takes an incredible amount of selflessness,” McGovern said. “I can’t think of a better example of selflessness.”

Their legacy spanned the decades between 1907 and World War II. The all-Black officers were sent to West Point to teach cavalry to mostly white cadets.

“To have Army leadership put their stamp on those regiments and to say ‘yes the horse detachment is broken and the only fix is the Buffalo Soldiers’ is testament to just how good they were,” McGovern explained. 

And in return, they produced some of the country’s best and most notable leaders.

“We call the class of 1915 here ‘the class that the stars fell on,’ because the class of 1915 held people like Dwight Eisenhower like Omar Bradley,” McGovern said. “Any general that you heard of who lead American units in World War II were trained in part by the Buffalo Soldiers in the horse detachment.”

But even at a time when New York was fully integrated, the Buffalo Soldiers were not held in the same regard as their white counterparts. It’s something McGovern explained was unfortunately typical treatment at the time in the country.

“Say one of the troopers from the horse detachment needed to go to the commissary, they were made to take the long way around,” he added.

Rev. Robert Dixon was someone who took that long way around. The history of the Buffalo Soldier isn’t as far gone as it may seem. At 101 years old, Dixon is known to be the last of the surviving Buffalo Soldiers at West Point. 

“They gave him his ribbons and medals on paper but they never gave them to him in a physical sense,” said his wife of 49 years, Georgia Dixon.

Georgia says he never spoke much of his service. 

”There was a segregation of Black and white,” she said. “But yet when it came to the battlefield, where was the segregation then?” 

Dixon joined the Army at 19 years old in 1941 and was sent to West Point to train cadets on horseback. 

Just shy of five years in the service, he was honorably discharged in 1946, just before the cavalry was disbanded at the academy and as tanks began to take over. 

“When Rev. Dixon was here think of some of the people who passed through here,” McGovern said. “Think about the impact that Rev. Dixon had.”

Dixon went on to become a father of six, a minister and pastor for more than 55 years. Dixon became a champion for civil rights in New York’s Capital Region. After the police killing of Jessie Davis in 1984, he helped create the Police Citizen Review Board.

“He was a pastor not to sit in the walls, but what he preached to his congregation. He went out and did what he preached in the community,” his wife recalls of his service to his parish and community.

Today, more than 80 years after he first stepped foot at West Point, his medals are finally on display inside his home -- awarded him, finally, at 100 years old. 

Georgia says he’s proud to see his medals on display.

“And he can see them every night when he goes up to bed and every morning when he comes downstairs,” she said.

After more than a century since the 9th and 10th cavalry first came to a segregated West Point, the last Buffalo Soldier returned. This time, as their story was written in stone, for a dedication to the bronze monument of the Buffalo Soldier dedicated at West Point.

“We are paying recognition, and due homage, and we are acknowledging the loyalty,” he said.

It’s a reminder that it’s never too late to pay homage to the past and those who helped shape it, even at 101.