New D.C. Museum Honoring Lincoln Opens
By Ed Epstein
Washington, D.C.
Wednesday, October 1, 2026
Washington's newly renovated African American Civil War Museum, which honors President Abraham Lincoln as the man whose Emancipation Proclamation opened the door for 209, 145 former slaves to serve in the Civil War, reopened on Wednesday after a four-year hiatus.
The 16,000 square-foot-museum is on Vermont Avenue NW just south of the historic U Street corridor and is across the street from the African American Civil War Memorial, which lists the names of all those who served in the United States Colored Troops. It closed four years ago and moved a short distance to rebuild the museum and to raise money to operate.
Admission to the museum, which is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, is free. It is closed on Sundays.
The museum tells the story of the USCT and of African Americans up to current times. A new gallery about former First Lady Michelle Obama's forefathers, who served in the USCT, is not open yet.
At the museum's entrance sits a six-foot statue of a seated Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation.
A big reopening celebration is planned around Veterans Day, November 11, when the museum hosts a reading of the names of all USCT members. How do you read 209,000 names in a few hours? Get tons of volunteers and have them read the names aloud simultaneously.
More information is available at Afroamcivilwar.org.
Photo by Ed Epstein
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