WASHINGTON, DC.- 2011 ushered in the beginning of a four-year celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the American Civil War and the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement. For more than ten years, the African American Civil War Monument and Museum has stood as a testament to the struggle of African Americans and others to rid this nation of the scourge of slavery and racial bias. There is no doubt the fact that America is a much better place for all having shed itself of its slavery and Jim Crow past and come closer to living out the meaning of the words ‘One Nation, Under God, Indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for All’.

Today, the museum had its Grand Opening of the new and permanent site of African American Civil War Museum. The New location is 1925 Vermont Avenue NW, directly across from the African American Civil War Monument. The new location of the museum has over $5 million of modern, highly educational exhibitions, which highlights the story of the African American Soldiers during the American Civil War.

The New Museum location also contains a media center and a research area for descendents and scholars. The African American Civil War Monument and the new museum site has added greatly to the master narrative about Civil War slavery and justice by injecting primary information on the heroic role of blacks in helping Lincoln to win the war, keep America united under one flag.

Between 2011 and 2015, the African American Civil War Memorial Museum is putting together a series of programs on the American Civil War from the start of the war; emancipation; to the end of the war; and post war situations of the newly freed slaves. The next four years present a great opportunity for the nation to make great strides in the discussion about race and equality and it is for this reason that we have adopted the theme: