U.S. Colored Troop reenactors honor Black Civil War soldiers

8th June 2015   ·   0 Comments

Trice-Edney News Wire — Commemorating 150 years since the end of the Civil War, reenactors marched in a Grand Review Parade May 16, to honor the United States Colored Troops.

After the end of the war in 1865, African-American soldiers were prohibited from marching in the celebratory parade, although more than 209,145 Black soldiers, many of them former slaves, fought for the Union Army, said Dr. Frank Smith, founder and director of the African American Civil War Museum and Memorial, which is based in Washington.

The May 16, 2015, reenactment was intended to right that omission. Thousands lined the streets to cheer and to watch the event, which marked the final celebration of the sesquicentennial, the 150th year anniversary of the Civil War.

Frederick Douglass repeatedly called for the liberation and the arming of slaves, insisting from the outset, “The Negro was key to situation,” according to the book “Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution 1863 to 1877,” by Eric Foner an American Historian on Columbia University’s faculty.

Foner wrote that Black soldiers played a crucial role in the winning of the Civil War, and their role transformed the nation and how Black men saw themselves.

Colored Troops escorted President Abraham Lincoln into Richmond, Va., the Confederate capital, after the Civil War. The Colored Troops were first to enter Richmond.

The African American Civil War Memorial Freedom Foundation, the office of Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington D.C. and the United States Colored Troops Living History Association sponsored the reenactment.

This article originally published in the June 8, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.