Tuesday, December 22, 2015

SALUTE TO LINCOLN UNIVERSITY IN JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI

Lincoln University's --Jefferson City, Missouri--statuary tribute to its black colored troop founders in 1866 is pictured above. Those troops were the 62nd and 65th USCT (U.S. Colored Troops). They raised $6,400 among themselves to fund education for the blacks of Missouri , knowing that they had "no time to lose,"--as they put it-- to arm themselves with knowledge and wisdom for the unfinished work of equality that lay ahead, notwithstanding their newly won freedom from chattel slavery through victory. Their money was given to their white commander, Lt. Richard B. Foster, who faithfully discharged this sacred trust from his troops, becoming its first principal! Gary Kremer's vivid 2014 book describes it all: Foster, his heroic Civil War troops, Lincoln, and their Missouri legacies. http://www.lincolnu.edu/web/about-lincoln/our-history