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The Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club (NABSMC) is a Black (
African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
)
motorcycle club A motorcycle club is a group of individuals whose primary interest and activities involve motorcycles. A motorcycle group can range as clubbed groups of different bikes or bikers who own same model of vehicle like the Harley Owners Group. There ...
in the United States, named for the historic African-American United States Army regiments known as Buffalo Soldiers, seen in their patch. It is one of the biggest Black motorcycle clubs in the US and the biggest African American motorcycle club in Chicago, with 140+ chapters as of 2019, with over 5000 members across the USA.Buffalo Soldier MC, NAACP Today Show, 2010
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History

The first club chapter was founded by Ken Thomas, a Chicago police officer, in 1993 or 1994. The National Association of Buffalo Soldiers/Troopers Motorcycle Clubs (NABSTMC) was formed c. 1999. The organization was officially created at the 1999 National Round-Up. There a meeting was held, invited to that meeting were Presidents and Vice Presidents of most of the MC that at the time were using the name Buffalo Soldiers. There were 5 clubs loosely aligned but using the Chicago scholey (emblem worn on the uniform vest). Those clubs were Chicago, IL(Troopers), Florida, Delaware, Virginia, and New Jersey, and California. There also were representatives from Chicago, IL (Buffalo Soldier MC), Grand Rapids, MI, Dallas TX, Kokomo, IN, St Louis MO, and Harrisburg, PA. Each of those clubs had their own individual scholey (emblem worn on the uniform vest). The meeting was organized by Carl Laury who several years earlier had taken the Chicago scholey to Florida and created the third chapter of what was to become organization. Laury had traveled across the US in 1999 visiting the above named MC to invite them to the meeting in an effort to unite the various factions under one banner. While the meeting failed to convince the reps from IL, MI, TX, IN, MO and PA of the need to organize the ByLaws that Laury presented to the entire group convinced the rest that it was time to move forward. Those initial ByLaws were ratified and set the principles in place that the organization still follows to this day.


Activities

Chapters participate in many charitable activities across the United States, including: providing "Soldiers' Thanksgiving"
Thanksgiving turkey The centerpiece of contemporary Thanksgiving Thanksgiving (United States), in the United States and Thanksgiving (Canada), Canada is Thanksgiving dinner, a large meal generally centered on a large roasted turkey as food, turkey. Thanksgiving is ...
s, hams and other necessities for poor families in
Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia ...
; fundraising for victims of the
2010 Tennessee floods The 2010 Tennessee floods were floods in Middle Tennessee, West Tennessee, south-central and western Kentucky and northern Mississippi areas of the United States of America as the result of torrential rains on May 1 and 2, 2010. Floods from ...
; highway adoption and adopting a
nursing home A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of older people, senior citizens, or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as care homes, skilled nursing facilities (SNF), or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms ...
for monthly visits in
Clarksville, Tennessee Clarksville is a city in Montgomery County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 166,722 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tennessee, fifth-most populo ...
and mentoring jail inmates in
Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in Northern Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Washington, D.C., D.C. The city's population of 159,467 at the 2020 ...
. They also have a historical educational program concerning the contributions made by their namesake Buffalo Soldiers of the U.S. Army. The group is enrolled as part of an official
motorcycle safety Motorcycle safety is the study of the risks and dangers of motorcycling, and the approaches to mitigate that risk, focusing on motorcycle design, road design and traffic rules, rider training, and the cultural attitudes of motorcyclists and other ...
mentorship program in cooperation with the
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
.


Rallies

The group also is an organizer of the National Bikers Roundup, a national
motorcycle rally A motorcycle rally is a gathering of motorcycle enthusiasts. Rallies can be large or small, and one-time or recurring. Some rallies are ride-in events, whereas some like the Iron Butt Rally involve days of riding and an actual gathering only at t ...
that draws tens of thousands of participants who spend millions of dollars at the rally (estimated $10 million in 2004). The annual Buffalo Thunder Rally from Maryland suburbs to the
African American Civil War Memorial The African American Civil War Memorial Museum, in the U Street district of Washington, D.C., recognizes the contributions of the 209,145 members of the United States Colored Troops (USCT). The eponymous memorial, dedicated in July 1998 by the Af ...
in Washington D.C. started in 2002 or 2004. Some riders stay to participate in the subsequent
Rolling Thunder Run Rolling is a type of motion that combines rotation (commonly, of an axially symmetric object) and translation of that object with respect to a surface (either one or the other moves), such that, if ideal conditions exist, the two are in contact ...
motorcycle rally. About 1,500 riders participated in 2013.


Membership and organization

An academic paper on the organization and its context in
African-American culture African-American culture, also known as Black American culture or Black culture in American English, refers to the cultural expressions of African Americans, either as part of or distinct from mainstream American culture. African-American/Bl ...
described it as a "unique recreational,
service Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a ...
, and educational organization". The national headquarters official website states "we are not a 1% club and we claim no territory." Membership requires possession of a 750 cc or greater displacement motorcycle from any manufacturer, a valid drivers license, and insurance. Membership includes African-American men and women, mostly active-duty and retired military, law enforcement and professionals. Identification as member of a particular race is not a membership requirement. The national organization is composed of several regional/geographic "frontiers" in the United States: Northeast; Southeast; Great Lakes; Central and Western. Within each frontier, there are local chapters; the first chapter in a state is designated the "mother chapter" with certain responsibilities for establishing new chapters. A member who relocates to an "open state", or certain other conditions, is a "member-at-large", who is affiliated with the national group but not any local chapter.


Notes


References

;Books * * * ;Media * * * * * * * * * * * ;Other * *


External links

* {{Official website, http://www.nabstmc.com/ Motorcycle clubs in the United States