Army Forcibly Retires Colonel Charles Young on False Medical Pretenses to Block Black General

Colonel Charles Young, the highest-ranking Black officer in the US Army and third Black West Point graduate, was next in line for promotion to Brigadier General in 1917. The Army declared him medically unfit. To prove his fitness, Young rode 497 miles on horseback from Ohio to Washington DC. The Army retired him anyway, ensuring no Black general officer would serve in WWI.