CHARLES CITY Yolanda Wade and Daysha Christian didn't know much about their family history until last month.

The teenagers did not realize their black ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War, and that more than half of the nearly 7,000 residents of Charles City County could probably say the same.

Once they learned about their heritage, though, Wade and Christian joined the push for national recognition of their forebears and traveled to Washington to testify in favor of a monument.

The goal: to build a National Liberty Memorial on the Mall in the nation's capital honoring black patriots who supported the Revolutionary War effort and others who advocated their freedom.

"They didn't get recognized, and I wanted to take a stand for them since they're not here to do it," said Wade, 18.

"The monument can show that somebody actually cares," added 13-year-old Christian.

The idea is making its second appearance in Congress. An authorizing bill signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 expired in October before supporters could raise enough money to build the memorial.

A new authorizing bill was introduced in April by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., and a bipartisan group of senators, including Sen. George Allen, R-Va.

Maurice Barboza, founder and chief executive of Liberty Fund D.C., wants it to be passed this session.

"There's only so much time in a lifetime," said Barboza, who founded the group's predecessor organization, the Black Revolutionary War Patriots Foundation, in 1985.

In a statement, Dodd said, "The depth and breadth of patriotic contributions by African-Americans in the Revolutionary War have gone practically unrecognized throughout American history . . .

"More than 200 years since the Revolutionary War, and 20 years since this concept first came before Congress, it is time to erect a memorial highlighting the heroic efforts of the brave African-American men who fought in the Revolutionary War."

In 2003, Congress passed a ban on future memorials on the Mall, but for Barboza, it can be no other place.

"Right in that central spot, it's like the center of the spoke that radiates out to all these other historic landmarks that tell stories of different eras," he said, naming the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the National World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial.

The current bill would allow the black patriots monument to be situated between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial.

"We want it to be associated with American history. We don't want it to be separated and segregated in a part of the city on some street corner where horns are blowing and people are rushing to work," said Barboza, a 1971 graduate of Rutgers Law School who has worked as a lawyer and lobbyist.

Wade and Christian got involved in the effort through Judy Ledbetter, who runs a one-room history center in Charles City.

She had set up a Web site with profiles of Charles City children talking about their ancestors in the Revolutionary War, and Barboza stumbled across the page.

Barboza, who was preparing to present the plans for the memorial to a federal commission, thought relatives of Revolutionary War soldiers would make a powerful supporting cast for his effort. He contacted Ledbetter, who couldn't persuade any of the children featured on the Web site to testify, but found the two teenagers who would.

The June 27 trip to Washington brought the teens before the National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission, which must approve monuments before Congress considers them.

Wade and Christian told the stories of three of their forebears, including a common ancestor, William Thomas, who served two terms of enlistment in the Continental Army.

That day, the commission voted to recommend building the memorial on the Mall -- even though it recommended in favor of the 2003 ban on future Mall monuments.

But Chairman John Parsons said the commission believes Congress should make an exception since this memorial was approved in 1986.

"It's been one of my favorites from the first time I heard about it because I was so startled that I didn't know this story," said Parsons, who has been chairman since 1977.

Many Charles City residents also don't know about their ancestors' contributions to the American Revolution, says historian Ledbetter.

"My passion is just to kind of get people in touch with the history of this place, which I think is really remarkable," she said.

Part of the apathy about Revolutionary War history, she said, is that people do not feel a personal connection to those soldiers who lived more than 200 years ago. But if people find they have a blood relation who was involved, suddenly the travails of the American revolutionaries take on new meaning.

"I wouldn't have known unless someone told me," Wade said, "so if I can tell someone else, then they might care just as much as I do."