In Union County, New Jersey, many soldiers and sailors of African ancestry answered President Lincoln's call for troops during the Civil War and enlisted in regiments organized in Union County, the United States Colored Troops (USCT), out of-state-regiments and the United States Navy and Marine Corps. ¬They fought not only for country but also for their comrades in chains in the South and for the promise of equality that they had for so long been denied. ¬ rough their stories, never-before-seen photographs, documents and service records, local historian Ethel M. Washington tells a largely overlooked but riveting history of patriotic black servicemen in the North who defended the nation's ideals on the battle field even as they faced discrimination in the ranks and back home.
Ethel M. Washington is the history programs coordinator at the Union County Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs. Ms. Washington established the African American Design Archive at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution. She is a founding board member and vice chair of the New Jersey Black Cultural & Heritage Foundation, Inc. She is a contributor to the Encyclopedia New Jersey and Union County 150th Anniversary Magazine and authored Union County Black Americans and the award-winning African American Design Archive brochure. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including induction into the Linden Historical Society's Hall of Fame, Union County Women of Excellence Award and Luminous Award from the Raritan Valley Chapter of Links, Inc. She is a graduate of Central State University of Ohio and holds two master's degrees from Columbia University. She pursued doctoral studies at Rutgers University where she also earned a certificate in museum studies.