African American Civil War Museum

The African American Civil War Museum occupies a building with a brightly colored, geometric mural covering the entire front facade. It honors the more than two hundred thousand United States Colored Troops who fought for the Union. In eighteen sixty-five, Frank Smith found his own great-grandfather’s name on a roster of these soldiers and realized their stories were missing from public record. He spent years lobbying for the memorial across the street, which eventually grew into this collection of photographs, uniforms, and letters.