Buffalo Soldiers

The Blacks and the Filipinos have a complex relationship dating back to the Spanish-American War.  Following the Treat of Paris, the Filipinos decided to revolt as they were led by Emilo Aguinaldo.  The U.S. sent over calvaries to stop the revolt.  Among these were the Buffalo Soldiers, an all-Black Infantry.

Many in the Black community, such as Booker T. Washington and Ida B. Wells, supported Filipino independence and advocated that the Buffalo Soldiers refrain from participating in the battle.  They viewed the battle as assisting in the same oppression that Blacks had been fighting against in the U.S.  

However, the Buffalo Soldiers and other saw the battle as a way to gain the respect and trust of the U.S. government as equal.  They saw the battle as a small step towards being acknowledged as Patriotic and gaining respects as equals.  They believed that fighting in the battle would help the oppression of their family and friends back home. 

The Filipinos used propaganda to capitalize on the conflict of interest, as written in an excerpt from:

http://www.nps.gov/prsf/historyculture/the-philippine-insurrectiothe-philippine-war-a-conflict-of-consciencen-a-war-of-controversy.htm

As the war progressed many African American soldiers increasingly felt they were being used in an unjust racial war. The Filipino insurgents subjected Black soldiers to psychological warfare, using propaganda encouraging them to desert. Posters and leaflets addressed to "The Colored American Soldier" described the lynching and discrimination against Blacks in the United States and discouraged them from being the instrument of their white masters' ambitions to oppress another "people of color." Blacks who deserted to the Filipino nationalist cause would be welcomed and given positions of responsibility. (23)

During the war in the Philippines, fifteen U.S. soldiers, six of them Black, would defect to Aquinaldo. One of the Black deserters, Private David Fagen became notorious as a "Insurecto Captain," and was apparently so successful fighting American soldiers that a price of $600 was placed on his head. The bounty was collected by a Filipino defector who brought in Fagen's decomposed head.

A Black newspaper, the Indianapolis Freeman, editorialized in December, 1901, "Fagen was a traitor and died a traitor's death, but he was a man no doubt prompted by honest motives to help a weakened side, and one he felt allied by bonds that bind. (24)

During this war, many black soldiers developed relationships with Filipino women.  One story told by the Filipino granddaughter of an African-American grandfather is chronicled here:  

http://woyingi.wordpress.com/2011/01/03/buffalo-soldiers-in-the-philippines-a-filipina-american-granddaughter-remembers-her-african-american-grandfather/