In 1882, 28 African American veterans of the United States Colored Troops chartered Charles Sumner Post #25 of the Grand Army of the Republic, and the post also had an auxiliary wing, Women's Relief Corps 1, the first such group organized in Maryland. Constructed around 1908, the hall remained a center of African American life for decades and is now known as Sumner Hall. Charles Sumner Post #25 was one of 560 Maryland posts, of which 22 were African American, and it is now one of just two African American G.A.R. buildings still standing in the United States. Union veterans formed the G.A.R. as a national fraternal organization in 1886 to strengthen fellowship, provide care for retired soldiers and their dependents, and celebrate and uphold the Constitution. The G.A.R. lobbied for earned pension and disability payments, was the first racially integrated national organization in the United States, and in 1868 established Decoration Day on May 30, the forerunner of Memorial Day. Sumner Hall now houses programs and exhibitions that honor African American veterans, promote understanding of African American history and culture, and advocate for social and racial justice. More than 500 African Americans from Kent County served in the Army and navy during the Civil War, and for decades afterward African American veterans paraded through Chestertown to commemorate Decoration Day and place flowers on the graves of dead soldiers, Black and White, Union and Confederate.