African American Civil War Memorial

African American Civil War Memorial
	African American Civil War Memorial
Location	Washington, D.C., USA
Coordinates	38°54′59″N 77°1′33″W / 38.91639°N 77.02583°WCoordinates: 38°54′59″N 77°1′33″W / 38.91639°N 77.02583°W
Established	October 27, 2004
Governing body	National Park Service

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The African American Civil War Memorial, at the corner of Vermont Avenue 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 American Civil War. The sculpture The Spirit of Freedom, by Ed Hamilton of Louisville, Kentucky, was commissioned by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and completed in 1997. The memorial includes panels with the names of those 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 memorial was developed by the African American Civil War Memorial Freedom Foundation and Museum. It was transferred to the National Park Service (NPS) on October 27, 2004. It is managed by the National Mall and Memorial Parks of the NPS.

The associated museum, located two blocks west of the memorial in the historic and traditionally African-American U Street neighborhood, opened to the public in January 1999. Its mission is to enable visitors, researchers, and descendants of the United States Colored Troops to better understand the story of these troops.^{[citation needed]} To this end, it displays photographs, newspaper articles, and replicas of period clothing, and uniforms and weaponry of the Civil War. The African American Civil War Memorial Freedom Foundation Registry documents the family trees of more than 2,000 descendants of those who have served with USCT and invites descendants to register. Visitors can search for relatives who have registered in the Descendants Registry.