I don't know about you, but the last couple of years have exhausted me with news stories.

There is always some major headline making the rounds,

war, climate disasters, elections, it all just became too much to keep up with.

So, like many people, I kind of began to tune out.

But in November of 2023, buried at the end of the 6 o'clock news, a century old story found new life and broke through the noise.

The Army has overturned the convictions of 110 black soldiers for the 1917 Houston riots that

left nearly two dozen people dead. Now I wasn't watching live I don't have cable

but my mother never misses a broadcast and she couldn't wait to share it with me

The soldiers members of the third battalion 24th infantry regiment were also known as the Buffalo soldiers and faced months of racial abuse and

violence at the hands of the local police department.

Most Americans are unfamiliar with this story, but many Houstonians, including my mother, know it well.

For 20 years, a local museum has been sharing the history of the Buffalo Soldiers, that is,

black soldiers who served in the military after the Civil War.

Growing up, I visited the museum on school field trips,

but a lot of a deeper military history went right over my head.

But seeing the Buffalo soldiers mentioned in the National News

Cycle inspired me to return with a new perspective. And while I got a refresher

on the history, I also learned a new and fascinating story about how the museum got its start.

I'm Gabby Gladney, and this is Alice Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

Today, I visit the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum in my hometown of Houston, Texas.

And I learn about how a collection that started in one man's garage turned into a

national legacy after this. The first thing you see when you pull into the Buffalo Soldiers Museum parking lot is a giant

...