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Monument dedicated to African American veterans gets boost

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A monument to honor African American veterans is another step closer to reality thanks to a major donation made Wednesday, Sept. 5, reports WIVB.com. First announced last November on Veterans Day, the African American Veterans monument will be built in Buffalo starting next year, thanks to a $50,000 check from Catholic Health. For a long time, the monument has had support from the Buffalo VA and from Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes, but it’s particularly meaningful to a local Gold Star mother who’s waited nearly 30 years for this. The son of Georgian Davis, Nathaniel Clifford Jones Jr., died with 46 other sailors in an explosion during a training exercise on the USS Iowa in 1989, but time hasn’t stopped Davis from working hard in his honor. “I said to myself that I would continue the oath that he took to serve. So I serve my veteran community, I serve my veteran hospital and I am proud to do that,” Davis told the TV station. Part of her efforts has been seeing through the construction of a monument for Black veterans at Buffalo’s Naval and Military Park. “Blacks were an entity that were not acknowledged throughout history. So now, because of Vietnam, everything has changed,” Davis said.  ‘Because of the way our country treated our Vietnam veterans, they now know they have to honor all of their veterans.” Now, a large donation from Catholic Health is helping make the blueprints a reality. CEO Mark Sullivan told African American veterans on Wednesday that he recognizes not all battles happen on the field or in the air. “But battles date back over hundreds of years, where each service branch in every community battled for the recognition of equality for each and every African American service man and woman to be treated equally,” Sullivan said. The $50,000 will help fund 12 concrete pillars representing all 12 military conflicts African Americans have fought in. Davis looks forward to seeing her son’s name inscribed on it. “It does my heart good to know my son’s name is going to be on this monument and that he’s going to be remembered here in my hometown,” Davis said. “He’s buried in Arlington, so he’s always visited there, but he will always be visited here.”

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