Cheney Stadium will become the site of a free community celebration Monday as Tacoma’s Buffalo Soldiers Museum brings together military history, friendly competition and family entertainment for its annual Labor Day Festival.
The festival runs from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday, September 7, at 2502 South Tyler Street. Admission is free.
The day’s centerpiece will be a pair of volunteer softball games honoring military service and Tacoma’s civilian workforce. An Army team representing the Buffalo Soldiers will face an Air Force team representing the Tuskegee Airmen—often called the Red Tails—at noon. Tacoma longshore workers will then take on Tacoma firefighters at 2 p.m.
An opening ceremony begins at 11:30 a.m. with the national anthem, an honor guard from Joint Base Lewis-McChord and remarks from Buffalo Soldiers Museum President Willie Stewart and Pierce County Councilmember Paul Herrera.
Away from the field, the festival will offer food trucks, music from DJ Adam, inflatable games, face painting, balloon art, a bubble station, a children’s train ride, a 360-degree photo booth and free haircuts. The first 150 students participating in the backpack giveaway will receive a backpack with new school supplies.
Historical displays from the Buffalo Soldiers Museum, the DuPont Historical Society and the Red Tail Hawks will connect the festivities to the people and organizations being honored.
A Small Tacoma Museum With a Nationally Important Story
The event also offers an opportunity to discover an institution that many Tacoma residents may not realize is here.
The full name of the nonprofit is the 9th and 10th Horse Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers Museum. It occupies a modest building at 1940 South Wilkeson Street in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood, where its collections include photographs, books, uniforms, military equipment and artifacts spanning more than a century.
The term “Buffalo Soldiers” is most closely associated with the Black cavalry and infantry regiments created by Congress after the Civil War. These soldiers served throughout the American West and later in conflicts overseas, defending a country that continued to subject them to segregation and discrimination.
Tacoma’s museum grew from the personal collection of William Jones, one of the last surviving Buffalo Soldiers. Jones enlisted in the segregated U.S. Army in 1941, served with the 10th Cavalry, spent two years as a prisoner of war during the Korean War and completed a 20-year military career.
After being stationed at Fort Lewis, Jones made Tacoma his home and operated Jones Glass and Recyclables in the Hilltop neighborhood. He began publicly displaying military memorabilia and established the museum in 2005. Following his death in 2009, his daughter, Jackie Jones-Hook, continued his work and reopened the museum as a nonprofit organization in 2012.
Today, Jones-Hook serves as executive director. The museum describes its mission as educating the public and preserving the service and contributions of the Buffalo Soldiers from 1866 through 1944, including their roles during both world wars and their connections to Washington state.
The Labor Day Festival carries that history outside the museum walls and into one of Tacoma’s best-known gathering places—using baseball, music and family activities to celebrate the military personnel, firefighters, longshore workers and other labor forces that have helped shape the community.
The Buffalo Soldiers Museum Labor Day Festival takes place from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday, September 7, at Cheney Stadium. Admission is free. More information is available on the official festival page here.
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