HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH!

We hope you enjoy our #VRABlackHistory Series 2025

"Facing Extremism: How Our Ancestors Successfully Fought For Our Rights and #WeWillToo"

From the Transformative Justice Coalition and the Voting Rights Alliance

Please note, if you'd like to opt out from only the upcoming daily Black History Month Voting Rights Alliance #VRABlackHistory series, please email carnwine@tjcoalition.org. Unsubscribing at the bottom of this email unsubscribes you to all Transformers, not just from this special February Series.

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The Transformative Justice Coalition and the Voting Rights Alliance, in honor of Black History Month, are continuing the annual tradition of our daily special series devoted to sharing the legacies and stories of the sheroes, heroes, and events in the fight for Black suffrage. This series was created in 2017 and will introduce many new articles this year. In addition to these daily newsletters all February long, this series also incorporates daily social media posts; an interactive calendar; and, website blog posts to spread the word broadly.

This year, the Voting Rights Alliance’s #VRABlackHistory Series will take readers through the most difficult fights for our African-American voting rights- and how we won.

The 2025 #VRABlackHistory Series #WeWillToo Edition will connect our history to modern times to show just how our ancestors beat the odds. Every day, this series will detail in chronological order the fights for Black suffrage, and will feature articles on how Black people were instrumental in securing rights for homeless people; Fugitive Slave Laws and the parallels to the present day mass deportation raids conducted by ICE; the fight for same day voter registration; how our ancestors worked with hostile presidencies and courts to achieve rights; how Juneteenth has been used to mobilize voters; the amazing achievements of the Reconstruction Era; why birthright citizenship began and how the 14th Amendment has been interpreted throughout history; how DEI initiatives started in the 1860's; the 15th Amendment; how we achieved the first anti-lynching laws in Georgia and how lynching was used to suppress the vote; how we moved past the Jim Crow Era; how Black youth mobilized to lower the voting age to 18; how the Tuskegee Airmen went on to fight for voting rights after their service; how boycotts were used to fight for voting rights; the "Souls To The Polls" voting initiatives of the Black churches in the 1950's- 1990's; how Black people fought for voting rights for disabled people; how Black people fought for equal access to the ballot for the LGBTQIA community; how the Brunswick, Georgia community banded together after the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in 2020 to vote out their District Attorney; the history of voting rights for Black women and how Black women continue to vote and lead voter efforts at amazing rates; how we have historically used the Black press to fight for our right to vote; and, more.

Our ancestors faced much greater opposition than we do today, even as we face a new hostile federal Administration- and they persevered. The sentiment felt by some African-Americans post-election is to sit back, sit out, and a general feeling of frustration and hopelessness. This Series targets those feelings: we can win! This Edition of the Series is also a tribute to all of those fighting back, especially against efforts to ban DEI and our history. “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” – so let us learn from our history, our beautiful, strong, resilient, Black History.

Feel free to publish on your social media outlets and teach these lessons, with credit given to the Transformative Justice Coalition. Please let us know if you do share the series so we can publicly recognize and thank you. Be sure to send any publications to carnwine@tjcoalition.org so we can repost!

We encourage everyone to share this series to your networks and on social media under the hashtag #VRABlackHistory and to use this series for school projects. You can also tweet us @TJC_DC to share your own facts or connections to this history,

Others can sign up for the daily articles at VotingRightsAlliance.org. 

This article was written by Caitlyn Arnwine (formerly Caitlyn Cobb) This is the 2025 Edition. This article was originally written in 2017 and updated in 2018. All image sources used in the image were updated in 2024 and those links can be found at the bottom of this article underneath "Picture Credits".

Most sources are linked throughout the article in green, with a source list at the bottom of this article.

Today, February 2nd, 2025, we honor the Black soldiers who fought in the American Civil War. The Black soldiers- in no exaggerated terms- decided the direction of the war. Because of a 1792 law that banned Black people for bearing arms or serving in the army, Black soldiers had to fight for the right to be able to fight in the Civil War. Despite this, Black soldiers were so influential and played such a pivotal role that they literally were the turning point for the Union Army, and the secret envy of the Confederate Army. Both the Union and the Confederacy held onto their racist beliefs until they saw that it was no longer beneficial for their cause; and, yet, both sides continued to hold steadfast to their racist beliefs until there was absolutely no question that Black soldiers were needed.

Introduction: You Can Make A Difference, Just Like Our Ancestors

"A news release from the Defense Department titled 'Identity Months Dead at DOD' says official resources, including working hours, will no longer be used to mark cultural awareness months. Black History Month, Women's History Month and National Disability Employment Awareness Month were among the events listed as now barred.

"'We are proud of our warriors and their history, but we will focus on the character of their service instead of their immutable characteristics,' the Defense Department release read.

"In his first two weeks in office, Trump has moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal DEI workers be put on paid leave before eventually being laid off. On Thursday, hours after a midair collision between a military helicopter and an American Airlines plane killed 67 people just miles from the White House, Trump baselessly blamed diversity initiatives for undermining air safety, despite no evidence of that.

"Gerald Ford in 1976 became the first president to issue a message recognizing February as Black History Month. Since then, presidents have made annual proclamations marking the month as a celebration of Black history, culture and education.

"Trump's proclamation Friday specifically noted the contributions of abolitionists Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, conservative economist Thomas Sowell and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. It said their achievements 'have monumentally advanced the tradition of equality under the law in our great country' and are a continued inspiration.

"The declaration also listed golfer Tiger Woods as an American great, saying he was among those who have 'pushed the boundaries of excellence in their respective fields, paving the way for others to follow.'" (Trump White House Marks Black History Month While Defense Department Declares “Identity Months Dead,” 2025, AP)

"The presidential proclamations from Trump and his predecessor, Joe Biden, reveal stark differences in approach. Biden's 2024 proclamation extensively discussed systemic racism, policy initiatives targeting racial inequities, and specific achievements like record-low Black unemployment. He emphasized that 'Black history is American history' while acknowledging the country's ongoing struggle with "the moral stain and vestiges of slavery."

In contrast, Trump's shorter 2025 proclamation focused on individual achievements, highlighting figures like Clarence Thomas and Tiger Woods. While following the traditional format established when President Gerald Ford first recognized Black History Month in 1976, Trump's proclamation avoided discussing systemic issues or specific policies, instead speaking broadly about entering 'a historic Golden Age.' Trump also did not capitalize Black Americans, instead choosing to only capitalize Americans.

Both proclamations concluded with similar formal language calling for Americans to 'observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.' However, the Defense Department's new guidance effectively bars such observances within the military, marking a significant departure from previous practices." (Trump Issues Black History Month Proclamation While Administration Goes after DEI | Kgw.Com, 2025)

Even though he was born after the Civil War in 1882, John Wesley Dobbs, a Black retired railway postal worker from Atlanta, Georgia, described Black people during the Civil War in a radio speech he delivered to interested groups. Dobbs said: "'In the Civil War, 200,000 fought in the Federal Army for their own freedom and the preservation of the Union. Three million slaves made crops by day and protected homes by night, of their masters who were fighting to keep them in bondage. Such loyalty and devotion have never been surpassed by any people in any period of history. In the World War 380,000 were enrolled - 200,000 of whom saw service in France. The Negro has fought valiantly in every American War and has yet to produce a traitor to the flat!'"

Black soldiers played many roles in the Union and Confederate armies. Not only did their presence decide which side was winning; but, Black soldiers served as known spies for the Union, providing valuable information. They also slowly changed public opinion when coming to the North and providing many northerners with their first looks at the horrors of Southern slavery: "[f]or many northern soldiers, encounters with contraband slaves were their first introduction to the horrors of southern slavery. Slaves who had braved enemy fire and their masters’ wrath, some bearing the telltale marks of whippings, converted many a midwestern [sic] farm boy to abolitionism."

Black men and women served roles in the Union and Confederate army by doing hard labor or leading infantries. Black soldiers worked as nurses, cooks, blacksmiths, teamsters, launderers, cooks; they built fortifications and performed camp duties; and, they served as scouts for the Union army.

Black Soldiers Were Fighting to Be Seen As People

Black soldiers not only had to fight to be able to enlist and have weapons in the Civil War; but, runaway Black slaves who escaped to the Union army had to fight for their right to just be in the Union army without being returned to their Confederate masters because of the Fugitive Slave laws. Eventually, the Union Army recognized runaway slaves as "contraband", since, by law, they were the property of their masters. "The War Department [of the Union Army] adopted the makeshift policy first employed by General Benjamin Butler of Massachusetts at Fort Monroe, Virginia, in May 1861. Butler declared escaped slaves 'contraband of war' or enemy property that could legitimately be confiscated." By being a "contraband of war". or a "contraband slave", Union generals were able to circumvent the Fugitive Slave laws. Although, eventually, "Congress formally instructed Union Army commanders not to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law, abolished slavery in the western territories, and most importantly, fulfilled a longstanding abolitionist demand, the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia."

Black Soldiers Were Fighting for Equal Pay

Black soldiers not only had to fight to be recognized as people, and not as property, but they had to fight for equal pay. White soldiers- in both the Confederate and Union armies- were paid $13 a week, usually with an allowance for clothing; Black soldiers were paid $10 a week, with $3 deducted for clothing. This was because "[a]t the beginning of black enlistment, it was assumed that blacks would be kept out of direct combat, and the men were paid as laborers rather than as soldiers. Black soldiers therefore received $7 per month, plus a $3 clothing allowance, while white soldiers received $13 per month, plus $3.50 for clothes." 

"The army was extremely reluctant to commission black officers -- only one hundred gained commissions during the war. African American soldiers were also given substandard supplies and rations...Black troops strongly resisted this treatment. The Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment served a year without pay rather than accept the unfair wages. Many blacks refused to enlist because of the discriminatory pay. Finally, in 1864, the War Department sanctioned equal wages for black soldiers."

The War Department sanctioning equal wages came after Frederick Douglass had his very first meeting with Abraham Lincoln in 1863 to protest unequal pay and rank for African Americans in the Union Army.

Louden S. Langley

There's a sentiment, currently, about what can we do aside from post on social media? While activism should not be limited to social media alone, it is a more important tool for organizing than most people give it credit for. We can use social media much in the same ways that our ancestors used their writings and gave speeches. We never hear Dr. Martin Luther King's famous speeches and wonder "what good did that do?" Words have power, just like this article. You can wield great influence to elected officials and public sentiment through written and spoken word just like Frederick Douglass and Louden S. Langley.

"LOUDEN S. LANGLEY of Hinesburg, Vermont wrote a series of letters to newspaper editors expressing his views in the 1850s and 1860s. He identified himself as a man of color. On April 27, 1854, he lashed out at the Vermont Colonization Society for their vain attempts to send former slaves to the new colony of Liberia in Africa. He warned his fellow free men of color to beware of the colonizationists [sic], as they were prejudiced against blacks. He recommended that the Society should 'lend their influence in favor of giving us ‘liberty and equal rights’ in the land of our birth.' Langley would later write about the unfair treatment he and his brothers received while serving in the famous 54th Massachusetts Colored Regiment during the Civil War." (Building Communities: Abolition — Vermont Historical Society, n.d.)

"In the Spring of 1864, he wrote a letter to the governor of Vermont, complaining about the inequality in pay between Black and White soldiers, as well as reported on the aftermath of the Battle of Olustee." (Louden Langley (U.S. National Park Service), n.d.)

"While white recruits were paid at the rate of $13.00 per month, plus a clothing allowance of $3.50, black men were paid only $10.00 per month, with $3.00 deducted for clothing. To add to the inequity, promised enlistment bonuses, or bounties, were denied the black recruits. Despite Vermont's long standing pride in being the first in the nation to abolish slavery by action of its state constitution, the needs of these sons of Vermont and their families were ignored. Even the promised additional pay of $7.00 per month by the State Legislature was refused the men for a time." (Fuller, n.d.)

"In April 1864, the recruiting error was corrected and Langley transferred to the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, although by this point the regiment had been redesignated as the 33rd United States Colored Troops. Langley served the rest of the war as the regiment’s Sergeant Major, the highest ranking enlist man in the unit [and the highest rank available to a Black soldier at the time (Fuller, N.D.)]. He mustered out in 1866 but did not return home to New England, opting instead to remain in Beaufort County, South Carolina.

"After the Civil War, Langley became active in the region’s Reconstruction era political scene. Alongside Robert Smalls, Langley represented the District of Beaufort during the 1868 South Carolina Constitutional Convention in Charleston, where among other actions, he argued for a free, equal, and compulsory education for the people of his adopted state. Likewise, Langley served as the School Commissioner of Beaufort County in years following the convention. By 1879, however, many African American office holders in South Carolina, including Langley, had been cast out of public office by white legislators and violent factions of their supporters. 

"In 1880 Langley settled his family on St. Helena Island while he worked as an assistant keeper at the Hunting Island lighthouse – today a major destination for visitors to Hunting Island State Park near Beaufort. He passed away the following year at age 43, and rests today in Beaufort National Cemetery - buried alongside so many others who fought for the hopes and promises of Reconstruction."

Black Soldiers Were Fighting for Respect

Black people weren't just paid less; they were still seen as less. They were often: not properly trained; enslaved again upon recapture; killed even after surrendering; and, were never ranked as high as White officers. 

Black soldiers faced segregation in both armies, and other forms of discrimination, including riots against them. Not everyone supported the Civil War. There were Northerners and Southerners who rejected both causes. "There were whites who refused to fight once black soldiers were admitted. The North was also hit by economic depression, and enraged white people rioted against African Americans, who they accused of stealing their jobs."

Black Soldiers Were Fighting for Suffrage

"African American and abolitionist demands helped to define the meaning of black freedom. As early as 1864, the National Black Convention called for the right to vote, arguing that if black men were good enough for 'bullets,' they were good enough for the 'ballot.' They insisted that emancipation be accompanied by black equality and citizenship. In many ways, their views and that of their Republican allies in Congress helped shape the agenda of Reconstruction, when the Fourteenth (1868) and Fifteenth (1870) Amendments to the United States Constitution made black citizenship and suffrage a cornerstone of Radical Reconstruction."

"Before 1865 had passed, three Northern states—Connecticut, Wisconsin and Minnesota, all of which had very few black residents—voted against giving suffrage to African-American men. Equality for blacks would have to be sought in Reconstruction, and it would remain an elusive goal for many decades following the war’s end." 

"After the overthrow of Reconstruction in 1877, African American ideas about emancipation were deferred until the Civil Rights Movement led to the passage of new laws to implement black citizenship. But even during the dark days of sharecropping, debt peonage, disfranchisement, segregation, and lynching, African Americans and their allies continued to struggle for a more complete freedom."

Black people who had fought in the Civil War were never supposed to be regarded as equal- even if they were granted emancipation. Most Southerners and Northerners from both parties did not believe that emancipation or ending slavery would ever amount to actual equality. "The Times contemptuously rejected the idea that emancipation would lead to the African American becoming 'a voting citizen of the United States.' Blacks were 'incapable' of exercising the right of suffrage, and 'for many generations to come' suffrage for the freedmen would bring about 'the destruction of popular institutions on this continent.' It was 'little short of insane' to think otherwise. At the end of 1864 the Times was still declaring that the 'black masses of the South, of a voting age, are as ignorant upon all public questions as the driven cattle.' Lincoln’s views were not quite so negative. He said little throughout the war about elevating freedmen, but a few days before his death he did express a preference for giving the ballot to a few black men—'the very intelligent' and 'those who serve our cause as soldiers.' Nevertheless, he did not envision or promote rapid improve­ment in the practical conditions and social status of the freed people."

Conclusion

"Black recruiters, many of them abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, Henry Highland Garnet, and Mary Ann Shadd Cary, brought in troops from throughout the North. [Of the Black soldiers' service in the Union Army,] Douglass proclaimed, 'I urge you to fly to arms and smite with death the power that would bury the government and your liberty in the same hopeless grave.' Others, such as Harriet Tubman, recruited in the South. On March 6, 1863, the Secretary of War was informed that 'seven hundred and fifty blacks who were waiting for an opportunity to join the Union Army had been rescued from slavery under the leadership of Harriet Ross Tubman...'"

"By the time the war ended in 1865, about 180,000 black men had served as soldiers in the U.S. Army ['186,000 black soldiers had joined the Union army; 93,000 from the Confederate states, 40,000 from the border slave states, and 53,000 from the free states'].  This was about 10 percent of the total Union fighting force. Most—about 90,000—were former (or 'contraband') slaves from the Confederate states. About half of the rest were from the loyal border states, and the rest were free blacks from the North." "[These] number[s] [are] comprised of both northern free African Americans and runaway slaves from the South who enlisted to fight." "Forty thousand black soldiers died in the war: 10,000 in battle and 30,000 from illness or infection." "It is estimated that one-third of all African Americans who enlisted lost their lives." We could not have a series dedicated to Black suffrage without mention of the Black soldiers who fought in the Civil War, the outcome of which lead to the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.

Recommended Reading:

While many articles went into the research of this article, the ones below deserve honorable mention, and the author of this article encourages you to read them further for more in-depth analysis and information:

• "African Americans In The Civil War: Facts, information and articles about African Americans In The Civil War, from Black History". For complete information, this page should be read in it's entirety, including the article titled "Slave to Soldier: Fighting for Freedom" at the end of the main article.

• African Americans and Emancipation

• The Civil War and emancipation 

~Sources~ 

2025 Sources:

54th Massachusetts: The Civil War in Four Minutes—YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved February 2, 2025, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7isrEf-NXA&t=54s

(1378) 04-23-24 - Dignity For All: Johnson v. Grants Pass Rally and Oral Arguments Recap and Updates on the Fight to Rename the Francis Scott Key Bridge - YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved February 2, 2025, from https://www.youtube.com/

Building Communities: Abolition—Vermont Historical Society. (n.d.). Retrieved February 2, 2025, from https://vermonthistory.org/building-communities-abolition?form=MG0AV3

Fuller, J. (n.d.). The Letters of Louden S. Langley.

Louden Langley (U.S. National Park Service). (n.d.). Retrieved February 2, 2025, from https://www.nps.gov/people/louden-langley.htm

Remember Frederick Douglass #VRABlackHistory 2024. (n.d.). Transformative Justice Coalition. Retrieved February 2, 2025, from https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Remember-Frederick-Douglass--VRABlackHistory-2024.html?soid=1122865384673&aid=UzxdlWSQKx8

The letters of Louden S. Langley · Digital Vermont: A Project of the Vermont Historical Society. (n.d.). Retrieved February 2, 2025, from https://digitalvermont.org/items/show/1871

Trump issues Black History Month proclamation while administration goes after DEI. (2025, February 1). Kgw.Com. https://www.kgw.com/article/news/politics/national-politics/trump-issues-black-history-month-proclamation-while-administration-goes-after-dei-nation/277-9f5134d2-332e-4357-8324-28e336072b17

Trump issues Black History Month proclamation while administration goes after DEI | kgw.com. (n.d.). Retrieved February 2, 2025, from https://www.kgw.com/article/news/politics/national-politics/trump-issues-black-history-month-proclamation-while-administration-goes-after-dei-nation/277-9f5134d2-332e-4357-8324-28e336072b17

National Outcry Leads to Restoration of Tuskegee Airmen Legacy in Military Training – Which was Cut Over Trump’s DEI Policy | VIDEO

2017 - 2018 sources:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_Amendments#

https://academic.oup.com/maghis/article-abstract/27/2/5/934909/Architects-of-Their-Own-Liberation-African?redirectedFrom=fulltext

http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/emancipation-proclamation-desire-such-a-proclamation.html

http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/emancipation-proclamation-purpose-proclamation.html

http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/emancipation-proclamation-bibliography.html

http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/black-civil-war-soldiers#

http://www.historynet.com/african-americans-in-the-civil-war

https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/african-americans-and-emancipation/essays/african-americans-and-emancipation

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/civilwar/aasoldrs/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2967.html

http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/american-civil-war-history/videos/gilder-lehrman-massachussetts-54th

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/civilwar/aasoldrs/nsoldier.html

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/civilwar/aasoldrs/warrebl.html

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/civilwar/aasoldrs/dobbs.html

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/civilwar/aasoldrs/letter.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aap/aaphome.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aap/aapcoll.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aap/aapexhp.html

Picture credits:



https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.11520/

https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.13484/

https://www.loc.gov/item/2018666599/

https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.26454/

https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.11274/

https://www.loc.gov/resource/stereo.1s04355/

https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.59770/

https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.79435/

https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.05453/

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