Brigadier General Charles Young (Colonel Charles Young) was born March 12, 1864 in Mays Lick, Kentucky, to an enslaved family that escaped to Ripley, Ohio. His father served in the 5th United States Colored Heavy Artillery Regiment during the Civil War. Young graduated at 17, with honors, from an integrated high school in 1881. Young graduated from West Point, the third African American to do so, enduring discrimination throughout his academic career. Young was made the First Military Attaché to Haiti and the Dominican Republic on the Island of Hispaniola, earning praise from President Theodore Roosevelt for his service. Young was promoted to Colonel in July, 1917, despite being medically retired. Young also trained African American soldiers during World War I. Young died of illness in Lagos, Nigeria on January 8, 1922, while serving as Military Attaché to Liberia.

In 2022, Young was posthumously promoted to the rank of Brigadier General.

Brigadier General Charles Young was made a Great Ohioan in 2008.