All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors

A bronze and granite monument to Black soldiers and sailors who served and died in America's wars is crowned by a torch of life flanked by four American eagles. Between the soldiers and sailors stands a figure of Justice, and on the back female figures represent the principles for which conflicts were waged: War, Liberty, Peace, and Plenty. In 1927, African-American State Representative Samuel Beecher Hart sponsored the bill that led the Pennsylvania legislature to commission it. Though created as a tribute to Black war heroes, it was originally relegated to a remote location in Fairmount Park because of racist attitudes at the time. After six decades of lobbying by the Committee to Relocated the All Wars Memorial, elected officials moved it to its current prominent location in November 1994.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · United States