"There will be some black men who can remember that, with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation."
Abraham Lincoln, 1863
They fought for $7 a month; $10 from which $3 was deducted monthly for clothing. White soldiers were paid $13, with no deductions. They were all volunteers; blacks were not subject to the draft. Though they served in segregated units the officers were all white. If captured by Confederates they faced near certain death.
Yet 180,000 men served as United States Colored Troops during the Civil War, about 10% of the total Union troops. They won the war, won their freedom, and changed the face of America forever.
Unfortunately America did not keep its promises to these black heroes. By 1877 it had abandoned its commitments and the century long nightmare of Jim Crow discrimination had begun. Separate but equal was equal in the eyes of the law, no matter how unequal the reality was.
Many older cemeteries have a Civil War section, frequently honored by a GAR monument, with neat white rows of well tended tombstones and little American flags flapping in the breeze. Here in these Veterans plots, of all places, you would expect these warriors to be treated with equal honor.
But you would be wrong...
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