Henry Alvin Cameron

Prior to joining the military at age 45, he worked as a science teacher and coach at Pearl High School in Nashville, Tennessee, and was an advocate for education.

His true date of birth in February 1872 has been established from census records taken at various stages of his life and a biographical sketch of himself that Professor Cameron wrote for an encyclopedia of outstanding black Americans published in 1915.

In 1896, he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree from Fisk University and joined the faculty at Pearl High School in Nashville a year later as a science teacher.

On October 15, 1917, he was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, a facility established especially for training black officers in World War I.

Posthumous medals conferred upon Cameron for his actions during World War I include: the Croix de Guerre (awarded by the French); the Meuse-Argonne with St.