STATEMENT OF MAURICE A. BARBOZA

BEFORE THE

NATIONAL CAPITAL MEMORIAL COMMISSION

ON THE BLACK REVOLUTIONARY WAR PATRIOTS MEMORIAL

NOVEMBER 1985

Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee:

My name is Maurice A. Barboza. I am the founder of the Black Revolutionary War Patriots Foundation -- an incorporated nonprofit, tax exempt organization located in the District of Columbia. I am accompanied by the Foundation's counsel, Attorney Patricia M. Healy of the law firm of Reid and Priest. At the conclusion of my remarks, she will explain the current legal status of the Foundation.

The Foundation was established to seek congressional authorization to build a memorial in Washington, D. C. to honor black patriots of the American Revolution (Patriots Memorial) and to increase public awareness of the contributions of blacks to Revolutionary era America.

The Foundation has a ten-member board of directors and a National Advisory Council composed of distinguished Americans from various backgrounds. The names of these individuals precedes the testimony in your hearing books.

Legislation to authorize the establishment of the Patriots Memorial was introduced on February 7, 1985, in the House of Representatives by Representatives Nancy L. Johnson (R-CT) and Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) and currently has 116 cosponsors.

Twenty-four witnesses testified in strong support of the bill, H.J. Res. 142, at a hearing conducted on June 13 before the Task Force on Libraries and Memorials of the Committee on House Administration (Task Force). Modified somewhat by the Committee, the legislation passed the House unanimously (408-0) on November 6, 1985.

A companion Senate bill, S. J. Res. 143, was introduced on May 24 by Senator Albert Gore, Jr. (D-Tenn) and has 20 cosponsors. The Subcommittee on Public Lands, Reserved Water and Resource Conservation of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources conducted a hearing on October 23 on the legislation.

Besides the Black Revolutionary War Patriots Foundation, the memorial proposal has the support of a diverse array of national and local organizations, including the Daughters of the American Revolution, Prince Hall Masons, National Education Association, American Bar Association, American Jewish Congress, Sons of the American Revolution, Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York and the National Urban League. Most of these organizations testified on the legislation and participated in a Fourth of July march sponsored by the Foundation, from DAR Constitution Hal). to the proposed site of the memorial.

The two authorizing bills currently pending in the Congress were identical upon introduction. They complied in every respect to regulations of the Department of the Interior concerning the content of legislation authorizing the establishment of memorials with the exception that they designate a specific area of Washington, D.C. -- Constitution Gardens -- for the construction of the memorial. However, H.J. Res. 142 was reported by the Committee on House Administration, and passed, with the following changes that would --

1. clearly define the class of persons to be honored by the memorial;

2. delete the designation of the memorial site at Constitution Gardens and authorize the Foundation to select a site subject to the approval of the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission;

3. delete references to the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) with respect to site designation and the approval of the design and plans for the memorial; and

4. remove a provision giving the Secretary the responsibility for maintenance of the memorial after construction.

Mr. Chairman, the Foundation prefers the current language of the Senate bill, S.J. Res. 143, with an amendment (similar t that currently contained in the House bill) to more clearly define the class of persons to be honored. We do not support the deletion of references to the authority of the Secretary over various matters or the removal of language authorizing the site of the memorial at Constitution Gardens.

At this time, I would like to turn to two main issues in the legislation -- the appropriateness of memorializing black Revolutionary War patriots and the importance of designating the memorial site in the legislation.

I. Whether the black patriots of the American Revolution deserve to be honored by a memorial in the U.S. Capital

The purpose of the Patriots Memorial is to honor black patriots for their inspirational pursuit of liberty and freedom during the American Revolution. While it would honor their courage as warriors as well, the memorial is not a war memorial.

Those black patriots who would be honored are an estimated 5,000 slaves and free persons who between 1775 and 1783 served as soldiers and sailors in the continental army and various state and local militias. They are black men and women who provided civilian assistance and those who petitioned for their liberty. They are the thousands of slaves who took seriously the words of the Declaration of Independence and ran away to freedom.

There is ample documentation of the role of blacks in the American Revolution. A handful of black historians since the mid-l800's have researched and written on this subject. In 1855, William C. Nell published "The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution," which was followed in 1883 by George Washington Williams' "History of the Negro Race in America" and in 1942 by Luther P. Jackson "Negro Soldiers and Seamen in the American Revolution." Considered definitive work on blacks in the Revolution is Dr. Benjamin Quarles' book, "The Negro in the American Revolution," published in 1961.

Historians Lerone Bennett -- "Before the Mayflower" -- and John Hope Franklin -- "From Slavery to Freedom" -- included chapters on the Revolution in these general works focusing on blacks in American history. An excellent monograph, "Connecticut's Black Soldiers," was writen by David 0. White in 1973.

Last year, the Daughters of the American Revolution published "Black Courage 1776-1783." The Library of Congress published a partial list of black soldiers in 1974 based upon information culled from War Department Revolutionary War records. In 1983, the Capitol Historical Society dedicated a volume entitled "Slavery and Freedom in the Era of the American Revolution" to Nell, Williams, Jackson and Quarles. It explores black life during and immediately after the Revolution. Finally the DAR is currently researching and preparing for publication a comprehensive list of black soldiers of the Revolution. The first volume is expected to be published in April 1986.

The first question that most people ask when they learn that blacks served in the American Revolution is why would a slave fight for someone that had enslaved him. The answer to that question -- to a large extent -- lies in the Declaration of Independence and the history that preceded it. The idea that "all men are created equal" and that slavery was an evil institution were not new ideas to Americans, whether they were black or white. When presented with an opportunity to secure their freedom, blacks recognized it. The Revolution was such an opportunity.

The black struggle for freedom -- although haphazard--preceded the American Revolution by generations. Fear of slave insurrections led Massachusetts and Connecticut in 1656 and 1660 to bar black militia service. In 1712, blacks in New York staged an organized uprising, involving 27 slaves. Before they were captured, nine whites were killed; others were wounded. Six blacks committed suicide to avoid capture.

In 1721, blacks were chastised by Cotton Mather for having a "fondness for freedom," which he felt interfered with their religious responsibilities. In 1720 slaves were burned alive for their involvement in a revolt in Charleston. In 1739, there were three uprisings in the colony; one near Charleston resulted in the deaths of some 30 whites and 44 blacks. A year later 200 blacks were implicated in a plot in the same city. In 1741, two blacks set fire to seven barns in Hackensack, New Jersey and were burned at the stake.

Protests against slavery began as early as 1688 among Pennsylvania Mennonites, who adopted a resolution saying that slavery was inconsistent with religious principles. James Otis of Massachusetts in 1765, Samuel Cook in 1770 and Benjamin Rush in 1773 advocated the end of slavery. Connecticut Minister Levi Hart in the l770s condemned slavery and characterized America as the "land of liberty." Patrick Henry declared that "a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil." Thomas Jefferson was unsuccessful in getting Congress to approve a clause in the Declaration of Independence condemning the slave trade and laying blame for it on the King.

Benjamin Quarles in the "American Revolution as a Black Declaration of Independence" said that "all blacks during the Revolutionary era shared a common goal -- the pursuit of freedom and equality." Quarles contends that blacks long before the Revolution had become Americanized by their daily contacts with whites and that they "sometimes adopted the beliefs and behavior patterns of their owners.

Professor Ira Berlin, a Task Force witness, believes that the acculturation of blacks took place in ''a matter of years." Christianity played a major role in this process. By the mid-1700s, schools were being established for the education of blacks. Anthony Benezet established a night school for blacks in Philadelphia that was still operating when the Revolution came. Jupiter Hammon and Phylis Wheatley wrote poetry with freedom themes. One of the ironies of history is that the first to die in a major confrontation with the British, which led to the Revolution, was a runaway slave -- Crispus Attucks.

Blacks demonstrated that they had the spirit and intelligence to pursue freedom when the opportunity presented itself. On this subject, Alexander Hamilton, then a member of Washington's military family, writing to John Jay, president of the Congress, to urge the recruitment of blacks in 1779 said:

I mention this because I hear it frequently objected to the scheme of embodying negroes, that they are too stupid to make soldiers. This is so far from appearing to me a valid objection, that I.think their want of cultivation (for their natural faculties are probably as good as ours), joined to that habit of subordination which they acquire from a life of servitude, will make them sooner become soldiers than our white inhabitants.

The dawn of the American Revolution presented an opportunity for blacks, which they comprehended and relished. It was in many respects, too, a golden opportunity for America to live up to her true meaning by abolishing slavery and taking steps to assure the equal rights of all persons.

When the Continental army was being organized, blacks were barred from service for fear that they might understandably be inclined to aim their weapons at their former masters. But free blacks of Boston, who had already been in the army, protested; the order was partially reversed. However, recruiters, hard-pressed to fill quotas, continued to ignor the order and accepted runaway slaves, free blacks and others. Washington did not turn his back on them.

The states began to reverse policies excluding blacks from the militias in the face of British attempts to entice slaves to their side with promises of freedom. Americans were stunned by a 1775 Declaration issued by Lord Dunmore promising freedom to slaves who joined his side. Those irksome efforts to drive a wedge between master and slave and take away a potential source of American manpower were taken seriously.

By 1778, blacks were being welcomed into service and efforts were initiated, particularly in the South (but without much success), to raise all-black regiments. James Madison's November 20, 1780, letter to Joseph Jones said "would it not be as well to liberate and make soldiers at once of the blacks themselves." He continued: "It would certainly be more consonant with the principles of liberty, which ought never to be lost sight of in a contest for liberty."

The Southern states, which were threatened most by British forces after 1778, with the occupation of Savannah, had been stingy in filling their quotas, and recognizing this, an effort was undertaken by a key Washington aide, John Laurens, to raise an army of 3,000 blacks. It did not succeed. Washington was dismayed, and in a letter to Col. Laurens three years later said:

I must confess that I am not at all astonished at the failure of your plan. That spirit of freedom, which, at the commencement of this contest, would have gladly sacrificed every thing to the attainment of this object, has long since subsided, and every selfish passion has taken its place. It is not the public but private interest which influences the generality of mankind; nor can the Americans any longer boast an exception. Under these circumstances, it would rather have been surprising if you had succeeded; nor will you, I fear have better success in Georgia.

It was difficult to secure recruits from the South, and the enlistment figures explain Washington's obvious dispair. By around 1779, Massachusetts had furnished the bulk of men, 67,907, while the colonies South of Pennsylvania furnished only 50,493 -- 8,414 less than a single colony, Historian George Washington Williams points out.

The Revolution was no different than any other war in this respect: There was not a universal interest on the part of citizens to fight. But there was a great deal of interest on the part of black slaves and free men who saw the Revolution as an opportunity to win freedom and the rights of citizenship.

Blacks ran away to join the army, using assumed names to get past recruiters. They bargained with their masters for commitments of freedom in exchange for military service, accepting the possibility of wounds, capture, starvation, disease and death as gambles well worth the freedom they coveted. Some had the unfortunate experience of having masters who reneged on their promises of freedom, like James Robinson and Jack Arabas. Understanding his predicament, Arabas ran away and eventually was set free by a Connecticut court, after he served three years.

The majority of black soldiers came from the Northern states. However, no state failed to be represented in their
ranks. Most blacks served in integrated fighting units, although Rhode Island, Connecticut and other states boasted a few notable all-black units. Besides the army, many blacks served in the Navy, the colonies having a population of around 2,000 black seaman at the time of the Revolution.

Although admitting that records are scant, David 0. White contends that blacks in integrated units served in capacities similar to whites and that menial tasks appeared to be evenly distributed. Blacks, however, were usually privates under the command of white officers, although there were black sergeants in Col. Greene's Rhode Island Regiment.

All-black fighting units and individual black soldiers presented themselves well under arms and distinguished themselves in battles throughout the war. A French officer, The Marquis de Chastellux, described the Rhode Island Regiment as "strong, robust, and those I saw made a very good appearance."

At White Plains, New York, another French officer said, upon seeing New England's troups, "a quarter of them were negroes, merry, confident, and sturdy." White says that three days later, he reviewed these same troops, remarking:

"Three-quarters of the Rhode Island regiment consists of negroes, and that regiment is the most neatly dressed, the best under arms, and the most precise in its maneuver." In 1778, Col. Greene's First Rhode Island Regiment, composed of 125 blacks, of whom 30 were free, skillfully held their ground during a fierce four hour battle. Gen. John Sullivan, the Commander, praised these men saying that they deserved a share of the day's honors. In 1781, Col. Greene's men fought to the death defending him unsuccessfully near Points Bridge, New York. Later a white veteran described them as "brave, hardy troops. They helped to gain our liberty and independence."

Many black soldiers distinguished themselves in battle. Salem Poor was officially commended by the Massachusetts General Court for bravery at Bunker Hill. The Court said "we would only beg leave to say, in the person of this said negro centres a brave and gallant soldier." Austin Dabney of Georgia was awarded 112 acres in recognition for "bravery and fortitude" in several engagements." Edward Hector was given 50 pounds by the Pennsylvania legislature 50 years after the war for protecting an ammunition wagon while other Americans retreated. Salem Poor was officially commended for his services at Bunker Hill.

Jordan Freeman was killed after he lanced Major William Montgomery at the Battle of Groton Heights. Later, another black, Lambert Latham, and his compatriots were summarily executed by British soldiers. Freeman is honored by a plaque at Fort Griswold. James Armistead was commended by Major General Lafayette for his industriousness as a spy.
There were other blacks who were killed, injured and handicapped during the Revolution. Zechery Prince received his freedom posthumously. Gad Asher was blinded. Thomas Lively lost his right eye at Monmouth. Richard Primes was wounded in the head at Camden. Cuff Slade's feet were frozen. Robert Green was wounded in the face.

Blacks were captured as prisoners and did what they were supposed to do -- escape. George Dias was taken prisoner at Elizabethtown and escaped the same night. Isaac Perkins successfully escaped from Charleston. Ephraim Hearn was a prisoner for 9 months, Thomas Lively for 14 months and Thomas Buckner for 18 months.

Black soldiers brought skills to their military service; there were wagoneers, musicians, shoemakers, basket makers, farmers, bakers and planters. Because of their status, they generally served longer terms than whites. Francis Freeman, Cato Howe, Titus Kent, Pomp Liberty and others served the entire duration of the war. When the war ended, blacks had served in every major engagement from Lexington and Concord to Yorktown. Two blacks, Prince Whipple and Oliver Cromwell, were in the boat with Washington when he crossed the Delaware.

Some black soldiers had been carried from Africa to be slaves, men like Gad Asher, Richard Cozens and Caesar Clark.

Besides honoring soldiers, the Patriots memorial would honor black men and women who provided civilian assistance during the war such as a Danbury, Connecticut slave named Ned, who helped embattled whites in a house under attack by the British. They were eventually overcome; after being shot, Ned attempted to get up to shoot his assailant. His head was cut off. Ned's owner, Samuel Smith, said that Ned was "a very zealous friend to the American cause." Smith successfully petitioned the legislature in 1778 for reimbursement for Ned's loss. Black men and women also performed mundane support work that freed others to do the fighting.

Blacks seemingly used whatever means were available to secure their freedom by joining the militia, buying their own freedom and running away. Jefferson estimated that during 1778 alone, more than 30,000 Virginia slaves ran away. A South Carolina historian, Ramsey, estimates that his state lost at least 25,000 during the war. The total slave population in the South was estimated to be near 455,000.

Slaves also exercised the right to petition courts and legislatures. They submitted touching petitions. Quarles describes the efforts of a group of Connecticut slaves, who petitioned the legislature in 1779 for their freedom. They claimed that they "groaned" under their own burdens, but that they contemplated with horror the miserable Condition of Our Children, who are training up, and kept in Prepartion, for a like State of Bondage and Servitude."

Black Revolutionary war patriots left a legacy in their struggle for freedom; they formed churches and self-help organizations that would light the way for later generations. They formed family units whose immediate offspring served America in many ways and in other wars, including the civil war. Prince Hall founded the black Masons, an organization of over 300,000 members, which still bears his name. James Mars, the son of Revolutionary war patriot Jupiter Mars, wrote an autobiography about his life in slavery, because at the time of the civil war few knew "that slavery ever lived in Connecticut." His son served in the civil war. Lemuel Hayes, a minuteman who fought at Lexington and Concord, became a leading minister.

While many generations would have to wait to rejoice in the freedom that only a handful of blacks would achieve during the Revolution, a deep channel had been cut into America's consciousness through which a mighty river would rage and eventually engulf slavery and its evils. The free black population in Boston, New York and Philadelphia rose from 4,000 to over 22,000 by the turn of the 19th century. Slavery was abolished in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, and Vermont by 1785.

Although the adoption of the Constitution was a disappointment to blacks (since it recognized the legality of slavery and the inhumanity of slaves), the Declaration of Independence remained a beacon of hope to blacks. William L. Robinson of the American Bar Association told the Task Force that "the struggle for freedom kept the meaning of the Declaration of Independence alive long, after it had become merely an intellectual and patriotic symbol to most Americans. History echoes those words. A. Leon Higginbotham's book, In the Matter of Color, cites John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln and this quote from the major author of the 14th and 15th Amendments, Charles Sumner, on this point. Sumner, in an address to the Antislavery Society in 1870:

I do not think the work is finished, so long as the word "white" is allowed to play any part in legislation,-- so long as it constrains the courts in naturalization,-- so long as it rules public conveyances, steamboats, and railroads,-- so long as it bars the doors of houses bound by law to receive people for food and lodging, or licensed as places of amusement,-- so long as it is inscribed on our common schools; -- nor do I think the work finished until the power of the Nation is recognized, supreme and beyond question, to fix the definition of a republican government,'' and to enforce the same by the perfect maintenance of rights everywhere throughout the land, according to the promises of the Declaration of Independence, without any check or hindrance from the old proslavery pretension of States Rights.

On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., while standing before the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, repeated the generations-old echo concerning the Declaration of Independence:

"I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed--we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

* * * *

There are many factors that this Committee will examine in reaching a conclusion on whether to honor these persons by the establishment of the Patriots Memorial. We have been told that besides whether or not a person or class of persons deserves to be memorialized, there are questions of land availability and redundancy. Moreover, a memorial should have both retrospective and prospective significance

There are approximately 109 outdoor memorials in Washington and a handful that have been authorized but not yet built. We have been reminded that it is not enough to say that a memorial ought to be built simply because the persons it honors are deserving. There are potentially thousands of deserving persons and groups of persons who ought to be memorialized, but where would all those memorials go, some have asked?

With respect to redundancy, there are no outdoor memorials to black Revolutionary War patriots in the District of Columbia or its environs. Yet there are many that honor white or foreign individuals who served in the Revolution. Moreover, there is only one memorial to a black person -- a memorial to educator Mary McCleod Bethune at Lincoln Park. I think the committee would agree that there are many black heroes deserving of memorials and that it is rather unfortunate that they may never be recognized because since the civil war while others were building memorials, black organizations were struggling for equal rights.

Americans know very little about the history of blacks of the Revolutionary era or that blacks served honorably in the war. History teacher Edna Pearson told the Task Force "I am saddened when I think of all of those bright and eager young people to whom I taught the 'traditional' version of U.S. history. It was the only kind of history I knew at the time."

Since the 1960's, when educators were pressured to give classroom attention to the history of blacks, this history --if taught at all -- has been covered as if it were something apart from the mainstream of American history.

A former teacher, Representative Mary Rose Oakar (D-oH), chairperson of the Task Force on Libraries and Memorials, during the House hearing said she looked "forward to the day that black history is taught in the classroom as a part of the regular or mainstream American history curriculum."

The National Education Association said "[T]he history of America is rich in ethnic and cultural diversity. This richness has not always been promoted by the public schools, the media, and other American institutions. Textbooks often present false images to our children of particular ethnic groups."

The Patriots Memorial would serve an educational purpose in that it would remind Americans of the rich and meaningful contributions of blacks to the birth of America. It would illuminate the past so that the present generation would better understand the nation's history. In that sense it would serve a retrospective purpose. The Patriots Memorial would serve a prospective purpose by helping future generations of Americans understand what it is that binds us together as a people. Rep. Nancy L. Johnson, the memorial's chief Congressional proponent said:

"An American cannot be identified by simple physical, ethnic, racial, or religious characteristics. Even our cultural heritage is best defined by its rich diversity. What ties us together as a nation is our commitment to individual freedom and to maintaining the rights and privileges guaranteed by the Constitution to assure the perpetuation of that freedom."

Rep. Peter W. Rodino, Jr., who is the son of Italian immigrant parents, had this to say about what the memorial would mean.

"I am the descendant of immigrants who came to America to experience freedom and the opportunity offered in our country. We were not always looked upon as I was growing up as 'real' Americans because we were transplanted. I struggled to prove that we were real Americans, and so did my parents. Blacks have had to do the same thing, but under circumstances so overwhelming and so calculated to make them feel like outsiders that it is a wonder that we are where we are today. This memorial will reinforce my feelings as an American and those of many other descendants of immigrants. It will tell all of us the true meaning of the word American: struggle, hard work, perseverance and love of freedom."

II. Why should the Patriots Memorial be established at Constitution Gardens

Now, I would like to turn to the question of where the Patriots Memorial ought to be placed. The Department of the Interior testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that site selection was part and parcel of design planning and that the former should not come before the latter. I disagree.

A memorial ought to rise naturally out of its surroundings, like a tree growing in a forest, a mountain range protruding from the earth or a lake descending and expanding. It is the subject matter -- the essence of the thing -- not the design that provides the clues as to where such an object belongs. The design must respect the environment and be shaped by it and not the other way around.

The memorial should carry no more physical significance than what surrounds it, whether those things are man-made or living. Because the memorial would strive to achieve equality and understanding among people, it must have an environment capable of conveying that statement to visitors. The Patriots Memorial must be closest to those things with which it shares a common history and to those things with which it is commonly perceived to have no relationship at all. Only then can the memorial explode myths and misperceptions, exposing the essential elements it shares in common with the symbols most important to Americans.

The proposed site of the Patriots Memorial, which is specified in S.J. Res. 143, is on Federal land between two symbols of freedom, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. This site makes a powerful statement that present and future generations ought to hear. It would share the lake at Constitution Gardens with a memorial to the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, a document that gave hope to these patriots' drive for freedom. And they, more than any others, kept alive the flame that ignited this beacon of American history.

When tourists, standing on the island where the Signers Memorial sits, look across at the Black Patriots Memorial, they will see in its' representation the true meaning of the Declaration of Independence.

Moreover, this land was hallowed by the many important events, which have occurred there during the struggle for freedom, like the 1939 concert of renowned black contralto Marian Anderson and the 1963 March on Washington.

The sound of water gently splashing the shore of the lake at Constitution Gardens will remind visitors of the harrowing ocean passage of some of these men and women and their ancestors from their native Africa.

The contemplative atmosphere of Constitution Gardens and the walk around the lake to the proposed memorial site from Constitution Avenue will give visitors an opportunity to think about the long black struggle to attain the freedom these patriots first sought.

Memorials to other Revolutionary war heroes at Lafayette Park and elsewhere in the city, including Constitution Hall, will take on a new meaning to all Americans, especially to blacks. Pulaski, Greene, Hale, Jefferson, Kosciuszko, Layfayette, Muhlenburg, Rochambeau, Von Steuben, Ward, Washington and the thousands of white patriots on the registers of the DAR surely would have welcomed this memorial to their black compatriots and wondered why it took so long. That is what their descendants of the DAR and SAR have said in testimony.

On the Fourth of July, more than a dozen organizations walked with us from DAR Constitution Hall to the proposed site of the memorial. We wanted to test whether the site would convey to tourists the values and qualities that these black patriots possessed, their true role in the birth of the nation and the importance of what they did.

During a ceremony, more than 200 persons stood on a grassy knoll overlooking the lake at Constitution Gardens. A DAR color guard held the flags of the Thirteen colonies at the Signers Memorial. Directly behind them, Constitution Hall was in our line sight. With the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial over our shoulders, the statement was as crystal clear as the sky that day.

The Washington Monument is a reminder of General Washington's vigorous efforts to recruit black soldiers. Early in the war -- because of protests from free blacks -- he partially reversed a decision to exclude from service all blacks, including veterans of the Continental army. As the war effort sagged, the order was completely reversed.

The Lincoln Memorial is a reminder of the Emancipation Proclamation and of Lincoln's commitment to equality. Viewed together with the Patriots Memorial, they will make the point that thousands of determined blacks had won freedom on their own initiative generations before Lincoln's birth. The Lincoln Memorial is also a reminder of the galvanization there in 1963 of the modern civil rights movement and of Lincoln's desire to heal the nation.

The sight of the DAR color guard and Constitution Hall were reminders of how this project had brought together such a diverse group -- just as diverse as the nation. The proximity of the proposed memorial site to Constitution Hall will forever link black patriots with the Revolution and their white compatriots.

Before concluding, I want to mention a man that Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) profiled in remarks he made in the November 6, 1985, Congressional Record about a black Marylander, James Robinson, who served in the Revolution. Mr. Robinson so typifies the selflessness of those who fought the bittersweet struggle for freedom.

Mr. Robinson was born a slave in Maryland in 1753. When war broke out, Mr. Robinson asked to serve in the Army, where he also fought in the battle at Yorktown, as well as at Brandywine. For his service in the battle, which secured the surrender of General Cornwallis at Yorktown, he was decorated for military valor by General Lafayette. After the war, Mr. Robinson was returned to slavery and sent to Louisiana.

With the start of the War of 1812, Mr. Robinson again offered his services to his country. Despite his contributions in two American wars, Mr. Robinson did not become a free man until after the Civil War. Once freed, he moved to Detroit where he resided until his death at the age of 115.

Like Mr. Robinson's eventual freedom, this memorial to black patriots is long overdue.