Franklin County residents and the local branch NAACP unveiled a monument Sunday to 70 Black men from the county who fought for the United States Colored Troops.
Organizers say the monument helps tell a fuller story of the county’s participation in the Civil War. Franklin County long has celebrated its links to the Confederacy and as the homeplace of Confederate General Jubal Early. But on Sunday, residents remembered a different connection to the Civil War, as a community movement called Raising the Shade unveiled a statue honoring 70 Black men from Franklin County who fought for the Union.
Larry Moore, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, spoke as drapes fell and revealed the statue to hundreds of people in attendance: “Now with humility and reverence, we say to those who were born in bondage, who labored in slavery and now nonetheless served those country with honor, especially the 70 United States Colored Troops born in Franklin County, we say, ‘Welcome home, Americans.'”
It wasn’t just Franklin County residents who gathered at the memorial site in Rocky Mount. Raffeal Sears is an actor and genealogist who traveled from Kansas City to see the memorial and the engraving of the name of his great, great, great grandfather: Private Peter Hooks. For him, it was a big step toward learning about his family’s history…