Unfortunately for Black veterans and their kin, the lack of public acknowledgment, in the form of mustering out processions, highlighted that some members of their local communities no longer prioritized honoring their service. But after the 20th USCI mustered out in October of 1865, they did not get a return event.Ĭonversely, multiple white New York regiments - including the 63rd New York Infantry Regiment, received a well-attended celebration upon returning to New York City on July 4, 1865. Army uniforms, marched down the same New York City streets where the Draft Riots occurred seven months earlier. More specifically, even though the 20th United States Colored Infantry, or USCI, Regiment previously received a grandiose deployment military procession (in 1864) which garnered national attention as Black men, in U.S. For example, one need only look at the lack of postwar public ceremonies for Black New York regiments. At the same time, the well-deserved, posthumous award provides a way to include their sacrifices to the ongoing - and often contentious - debates about Civil War public memory.Īfter the Civil War officially ended on April 9, 1865, many Black veterans and their families entered a new battleground: the public memory of the war. Their efforts reinforce that Black Civil War military service, even 100 plus years ago, deserves commemorating and honoring. Congress has begun debating the possibility of awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the nearly 200,000 Black people who served in the U.S. Under the leadership of Eleanor Holmes Norton and Cory Booker, the U.S.
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