THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 8, 1994 TAG: 9409080475
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
In this city of monuments, 360 commemorate episodes in American history, a quarter of those honoring events and participants in the Civil War. But not one honors the 178,000 black soldiers who fought in that war.
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt pointed that out Wednesday as he took part in the groundbreaking of an African American Civil War Memorial in one of Washington's oldest black neighborhoods.
Not one, Babbitt said, ``makes even a passing reference to the heroism and the role . . . of former slaves, the victims of centuries of oppression and injustice.''
The United States Colored Troops came into being in 1863 after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed most slaves and stated that they would be received into the armed services.
The memorial will be on a plaza created by construction of an underground subway stop at 10th and U Street, N.W. The area is named after Col. Robert Gould Shaw, commander of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, which figured in the movie ``Glory.''
``It marks the beginning of a new thrust of tourism beyond the monuments and memorials on the Mall,'' said Frank Smith Jr., a member of the District of Columbia city council who was the driving force behind the memorial project.
The memorial will be a semicircular 3-foot-high curved stone inner wall holding stainless steel plaques with the names of the black Union soldiers and the 7,000 white officers who led them. It was designed by architects Paul S. Devrouax Jr. and Edward D. Dunson Jr.
It was a collaborative effort among the District of Columbia, the National Park Service and the Metro transportation system. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Dressed as Union soldiers, ceremony participants observe a moment of
silence as ground is broken for a monument in Washington honoring
African Americans who fought in the Civil War. by CNB