Veterans point out, there are monuments, even entire museums, dedicated to the contributions of African Americans in this country’s fight for freedom.
But founders of Buffalo’s African American Veterans Monument say this is the first testament to their taking part in all of America’s wars, reports WIVB.com.
This was the first Naval and Military Park Memorial Day service recognizing the African American Veterans Monument.
The monument has been in the planning stages for more than four years, and the design features 12 black 10-foot columns representing America’s 12 wars and military conflicts going all the way back to the death of Crispus Attucks, an escaped slave who was the first to be cut down by British troops in the Boston Massacre of 1770.
“That African Americans had been serving in every war that this country has been in – every major conflict – from the Revolutionary War to where we are now, the War on Terrorism,” said Warren Galloway, an Air Force veteran who is chairman of the African American Veterans Monument planning committee.
Galloway says the monument is designed to be a memorial and educational, showing African Americans continued to fight for this country despite second-class status until America’s armed forces were desegrated in 1948.
The monument was in the planning stages until the one-and-a-half million dollar cost was accounted for. Now the design has been updated with an audible component.
People will be able to use their smartphones and IPads to key on things and get a verbal history that will be more extensive than what they can read.
