Charles Young’s Early Life: 1864 to 1884

Photo collage of Charels Young and his parents. In order from left to right is Charles Young at 10 years old, Gabriel Young, Arminta Young and Charles Young as a cadet at West Point.

National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center, Wilberforce, Ohio

Charles Young was born enslaved on March 12, 1864, in May’s Lick, Kentucky, to Gabriel and Arminta Young. Little is known about Arminta’s life as an enslaved person. Her mother taught her to read and write; these were valuable but risky skills during the time because it was illegal in many places to educate enslaved people. Gabriel Young failed in his first attempt at self-emancipation. However, he succeeded the second time, this time with his wife and infant son.

In Ripley, Ohio, Gabriel enlisted in the Federal Army on February 13, 1865. He was assigned to the Fifth U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery. He was stationed for 15 months in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Ripley was an abolitionist town and an active stop on the Underground Railroad. After the war, the Young family eventually settled in Ripley.

Education played a fundamental role in Charles Young’s life. Arminta gave her son the foundations of learning. She taught him how to read and write before he entered school. Charles was an excellent student who received good grades in Ripley’s public school.

One day Gabriel Young was traveling back to their Cherry Street home in Ripley when he saw young Charles along with some other boys dancing and vying for the small change cast in the street by some amused hand-clapping spectator. This angered Gabriel, and he admonished Charles for his actions. As a result of this incident, Gabriel bought a melodeon for Charles and arranged for him to receive lessons. Charles learned rapidly and soon was playing for Sunday school and church services at the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) and Baptist churches in town. He also learned to play the violin.

Although Ripley was a progressive town of the era, it still had segregated schools. Charles Young and the other African American children made up roughly 25 percent of the student body. Ripley’s two high schools integrated some of their functions, but most of the classes were physically separate. Besides basic reading, writing, and arithmetic, which were segregated, other classes such as foreign languages were integrated. Charles Young took French and German with white students, the first African American student to take these classes. By the time he graduated he excelled in French and was conversant in German. During his time in high school, he was subjected to racism and ostracism by some of his white classmates.

Charles Young was mentored by John P. Parker, an African American entrepreneur and abolitionist who helped nearly 1,000 enslaved people to reach freedom through the Underground Railroad in Ripley. He was responsible for recruiting Gabriel Young into the Federal Army during the Civil War. Charles went to school with Hortense Parker, John’s daughter. Young also benefited from Parker’s extensive home library only a few blocks from the Youngs’ home.

Young graduated from Ripley High School in 1881 at the age of 17. The school held an integrated graduation ceremony on June 2, 1881, at the Third Street Baptist Church. Each of the 21 graduates including Young recited an essay; some also sang songs and played instruments. Young’s oration was a piece called “Let There Be Light.”

After graduating from high school with honors, Young taught for three years at the African American school in Ripley. During his first year of teaching, he presented a paper titled “We Must Educate” to the integrated staff of the Ripley Union school system during an in-service meeting. In 1883 he passed an exam for which he received a teaching certificate that was valid for three years. That same year, he became acting superintendent of Ripley’s African American schools.

Also in 1883, Young took the United States Military Academy examination in Hillsboro, Ohio. He was ranked second behind William A. Stamats, who accepted the nomination and attended West Point starting in the summer of 1883. When Stamats resigned his place at West Point on January 8, 1884, Young was offered his spot starting the next school year. Young accepted, entering West Point in the summer of 1884.

Want to learn more about Charles Young’s early life? Read Black Cadet in a White Bastion: Charles Young at West Point, by historian and author Brian G. Shellum.