Col. Charles Young finally getting Rank he earned

So much is going on in our world, as usual, and there’s a shortlist of hot news items I could write about in this week’s SCOOP Online column.
I chose to write about a long-overdue good news story that got very little attention. Kudos to President Joe Biden for recognizing and respecting the work accomplished by Col. Charles Young and the strong legacy he left behind. It was just this past Black History month that I wrote a new column about this amazing African American living legend in his own right, Col. Charles Young. In my Black History Month column, I shared some of the Col. Charles Young story, and I was also reintroducing Commander Tyrone Rucker, the current Commander of the Charles Young Post in Germantown on Sharpnack Street, to all of Philadelphia.
Little did I know seven weeks ago that President Biden was going to make the move that he did.
In February 2020, Gov. Beshear posthumously promoted Kentucky native Col. Young to the honorary rank of brigadier general in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Last February, the Governor sent a letter to President Joe Biden encouraging him likewise to promote Young in the U.S. Army.
In a letter dated Nov. 1, 2021, Under Secretary of Defense Gilbert Cisneros Jr. informed the chairs of the U.S. House and Senate Armed Services committees of his decision to approve the request, and Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth informed Charles Young’s family of the promotion on Jan. 19, 2022.
Charles Young was born in Mays Lick, Kentucky, to enslaved parents in 1864. He valued education throughout his life and graduated with honors from high school in Ohio, where his parents escaped slavery. He attended West Point in 1884, only the ninth African American to do so and the third African American to graduate, all enduring extreme racism–according to his biography.
Following his death, Col. Young was given full military honors and burial in Arlington National Cemetery, a reminder to Americans of his legacy as a leader, his perseverance despite obstacles, and his heroic example to others.
Aside from being an awesome leader in the U.S. Military, he came to be known as a diplomat. He spoke six languages fluently.
Technically it was the U.S. Department of defense that approved the posthumous honorary promotion of U.S. Army Col. Charles Young to Brigadier General on Feb. 1, 2022.
It’s been 100 years since his death. Finally, Col. Charles Young can now be known as Brigadier General Charles Young.
One thing I know for certain, when the members of the Col. Charles Young Post in Philadelphia, heard the news of his promotion, a loud cheer roared from Sharpnack Street to the White House.