All day Saturday, meet members of Female RE-Enactors of Distinction (FREED) and the African American Civil War Museum, who bring to life at the Second Street School such real historical figures as …

Hattie, a pre-Civil War enslaved woman who speaks of the sorrows of her homeless-family-less life, “rented” to multiple owners;  Major Martin Delany, distinguished Civil War officer, abolitionist, journalist, physician, writer, and one of the first African Americans to be admitted to Harvard Medical School;  Frances Anne Rollin, author of the first known Southern black woman’s diary and of Life and Public Services of Martin R. Delany, the first full-length biography written by an African American;

Elizabeth Taylor-Greenfield, born a slave who became the world renowned singer known as the Black Swan; Charlotte Scott, who as a freed woman dedicated herself to raising the funds from other newly freed slaves to build the Freedman’s Memorial or Emancipation Statue, in honor of the Friend of Negroes, Abraham Lincoln, which stands in Lincoln Park, Washington, D.C. today;  Hallie Quinn Brown, a great elocutionist and educator, who spent three decades as a professor of elocution at Wilberforce University.

FREED’s mission is to educate the public and to promote the accomplishments of the African American Civil War Soldiers and women who supported their fight for freedom. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the African American Civil War Museum in Washington, D.C. features a rich collection of artifacts, documents, primary sources and technology to create a meaningful learning experience for families, students, Civil War enthusiasts and historians about the period from the American Civil War to Civil Rights and beyond.

Second Street School D-3 on map