Omenala-Griot Afrocentric Museum & Event Center

10/20/2025

10/20/2025

12/07/2024

A Legacy of Hope at the Omenala Griot Afrocentric Teaching Museum today from 2pm till 7pm.

11/05/2024

Had back surgery on Friday.Everything came out will feeling very sore.I'll be down but never out.Thank you for praying for me

08/04/2024

Still saying praises to our Lord.

09/29/2023

Cathay was born and enslaved in 1850 in Jackson County, Missouri. In September 1861 Union troops impressed Cathay and she joined the Army to work as a cook and washerwoman for Union Army officers.
On November 15th, 1866 Williams disguised herself as a man and enlisted as William Cathey, serving in Company A of the 38th Infantry, a newly-formed all-black U.S. Army Regiment, one of its earliest recruits.


Cathay initially served at Jefferson Barracks outside St. Louis and was later posted at Fort Cummings and Fort Bayard in New Mexico Territory. Like other black soldiers stationed, she endured inadequate supplies and inferior weapons.
Cathay concealed her femininity for two years despite numerous Army hospital visits before her true gender was discovered by the Fort Bayard post surgeon. She was discharged at Fort Bayard on October 14, 1868 on a surgeon’s certificate of disability.

Cathay was hospitalized circa 1890 for over a year in Trinidad. In June 1891 she filed an invalid pension application based on medical disability incurred during military service as William Cathey.
The Army rejected her pension claim on February 8, 1892, citing no grounds for a pensionable disability, but did not question her gender identity as William Cathay. The date of Cathay Williams’ d.eath is unknown.

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