On April 6, 2009 Ile Omode's middle school students awoke to find themselves in Washington, DC, and on that day they visited the most amazing sites, but none were as amazing as the African American Civil War Museum.

First they arrived at the African American Civil War Memorial. There they studied the statue showing African American Union soldiers and a sailor. Around the statue were 409,145 names of all of the African American soldiers in the Civil War. However none were sailors, because there is no proof that the names received were actually the real names of the sailors. After walking down several blocks, the middle school students arrived at the museum. They were immediately led into a room that contained vast information and artifacts.

Upon entering they met with the museum’s curator and assistant director, Mr. Hari Jones. When they were settled down Mr. Jones started off with facts on how the Civil War began with the Confederate and the Union and then he began educating the middle school students on how African people freed themselves from the Confederacy and slavery. However many things that Mr. Jones talked about, people would say were conspiracy theories. So some people believed he couldn’t base some of his information on anything.

On the wall behind Mr. Hari pictures and artifacts stood out. Two pictures showed a before and after of an African American drummer boy in the Civil War. Before he became a drummer boy he was dressed all in rags and was rather poor. After he decided to become a drummer boy his whole appearance changed. The uniform he wore made him important. His job was to relay messages to other drummer boys by using the drum and to make sure he didn’t get shot. This made the middle school students realize that the Civil War was not fun and games; it was life or death.

Other pictures on the wall showed African American soldiers that fought in the Civil War. One soldier was the son of Frederick Douglass. Two tangible artifacts leaning on the wall were Musket rifles; weapons that the Union used.