The last remaining Buffalo Soldier was laid to rest Monday morning in Albany.

Family and community members gathered at the Metropolitan Baptist Church to say goodbye to the Rev. Robert Walker Dixon Sr., a member of the all-Black cavalry who became a civil rights champion in Albany and died at the age of 103.

The Buffalo Soldiers were an all-Black cavalry in the formally racially segregated U.S. military.

Dixon joined the Army in 1941 at age 19. He was sent to the West Point military academy to train cadets on horseback. After almost 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. 

Dixon went on to become a father of six and a minister and pastor for more than 55 years. After the police killing of Jessie Davis in 1984, he helped create the Police Citizen Review Board.

Spectrum News 1 covered Dixon's journey in a story last year, when he finally received medals from West Point and proudly displayed them.