African American Civil War Memorial

The African American Civil War Memorial, at the corner of Vermont Avenue, 10th St, and U Street NW in Washington, D.C., commemorates the service of 209,145 African-American soldiers and sailors who fought for the Union in the United States Civil War. The sculpture The Spirit of Freedom, a 9-foot bronze statue by Ed Hamilton of Louisville, Kentucky, was commissioned by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities in 1993 and completed in 1997. The memorial includes a walking area with curved panel short walls inscribed with the names of the men who served in the war. The complex is located at the eastern entrance to the U St/African-Amer Civil War Memorial/Cardozo Metro station.

The museum opened in January 1999 in a building two blocks west of the memorial in the historic U Street Corridor, a neighborhood traditionally the heart of African-American entertainment and theater in Washington. The museum enables visitors, researchers, and descendants of the United States Colored Troops to better understand their stories. It displays photographs, newspaper articles, and replicas of period clothing, and uniforms and weaponry of the Civil War.

The African American Civil War Memorial Registry at the museum documents the family trees of more than 2,000 descendants of those men who served with the USCT. Other descendants may register. Visitors can easily search the database to find ancestors and relatives registered in the Descendants Registry.