Unforgettable Sacrifice: How Black Communities Remembered the Civil War
Parades are a form of monument. When we think about who deserves monuments, remember the things that Black memory created through parades and celebrations as the living monument, not the structures made of stone.
Hilary N. Green
In dialogue with D.C. area educator, Jessica A. Rucker, held the evening of Wednesday, April 24 at Busboys and Poets (14th and V.), historian Dr. Hilary N. Green touched on the significance of joy, resistance, and cultural expression as conveyed in Green’s new book, Unforgettable Sacrifice: How Black Communities Remembered the Civil War. Dr. Hilary N. Green is the James B. Duke Professor of Africana Studies at Davidson College, where her scholarship centers on race, memory, and education in the post–Civil War American South. In addition to her academic work, she is both an advisor and fellow for the Zinn Education Project’s Teach Reconstruction campaign, where she supports efforts to bring more accurate and inclusive history into K–12 classrooms.
Dr. Hilary N. Green poses with her new book at the African-American Civil War Memorial.
Green invited the audience of educators, students, historians, and community members into the heart of her work. She detailed how Black communities, especially Black women, preserved Civil War memory as a form of homemade citizenship. Drawing from her own family’s experiences, she described “porch lessons” — informal, intergenerational teaching moments — as vital to preserving and passing on untold histories. Dr. Green explained how these intimate, intergenerational spaces served as counter-publics that actively resisted the dominant calls to forget.
Green challenged attendees to reflect on their role in preserving memory today. “We don’t have to wait to create what we can remember,” she said. She spotlighted figures like Priscila Marshall, who used the Freedmen’s Bureau to search for her children who were kidnapped by Confederate soldiers, connecting that historical struggle to contemporary issues like the carceral system and ongoing family separation.
Throughout the evening, participants were encouraged to consider their own memory work:
For your communities, what history is not being told?
What are the memory cues that guide your storytelling?
What is your non-negotiable with this current administration?
Dr. Hilary N. Green and Jessica A. Rucker pictured with Teaching for Change staff, Keesha Ceran.
Hilary N. Green is the James B. Duke Professor of Africana Studies at Davidson College. A distinguished scholar, her research explores the intersections of race, memory, and education in the post–Civil War American South. She is the author of Educational Reconstruction: African American Schools in the Urban South, 1865–1890, co-author of the NPS-OAH Historic Resource Study of African American Schools in the South, 1865–1900, and co-editor of The Civil War and the Summer of 2020. Green is an advisor for the Zinn Education Project (of Teaching for Change and Rethinking Schools) Teach Reconstruction campaign.
Unforgettable Sacrifice: How Black Communities Remembered the Civil War
In dialogue with D.C. area educator, Jessica A. Rucker, held the evening of Wednesday, April 24 at Busboys and Poets (14th and V.), historian Dr. Hilary N. Green touched on the significance of joy, resistance, and cultural expression as conveyed in Green’s new book, Unforgettable Sacrifice: How Black Communities Remembered the Civil War. Dr. Hilary N. Green is the James B. Duke Professor of Africana Studies at Davidson College, where her scholarship centers on race, memory, and education in the post–Civil War American South. In addition to her academic work, she is both an advisor and fellow for the Zinn Education Project’s Teach Reconstruction campaign, where she supports efforts to bring more accurate and inclusive history into K–12 classrooms.
Green invited the audience of educators, students, historians, and community members into the heart of her work. She detailed how Black communities, especially Black women, preserved Civil War memory as a form of homemade citizenship. Drawing from her own family’s experiences, she described “porch lessons” — informal, intergenerational teaching moments — as vital to preserving and passing on untold histories. Dr. Green explained how these intimate, intergenerational spaces served as counter-publics that actively resisted the dominant calls to forget.
Green challenged attendees to reflect on their role in preserving memory today. “We don’t have to wait to create what we can remember,” she said. She spotlighted figures like Priscila Marshall, who used the Freedmen’s Bureau to search for her children who were kidnapped by Confederate soldiers, connecting that historical struggle to contemporary issues like the carceral system and ongoing family separation.
Throughout the evening, participants were encouraged to consider their own memory work:
This event was co-hosted by Teaching for Change, Busboys and Poets, and co-sponsored by The African American Civil War Memorial and Museum, as part of the monthly Beyond Heroes and Holidays series.
Speakers
Hilary N. Green is the James B. Duke Professor of Africana Studies at Davidson College. A distinguished scholar, her research explores the intersections of race, memory, and education in the post–Civil War American South. She is the author of Educational Reconstruction: African American Schools in the Urban South, 1865–1890, co-author of the NPS-OAH Historic Resource Study of African American Schools in the South, 1865–1900, and co-editor of The Civil War and the Summer of 2020. Green is an advisor for the Zinn Education Project (of Teaching for Change and Rethinking Schools) Teach Reconstruction campaign.
Jessica A. Rucker (she/her) is a doctoral student in the Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park where she is studying Black radicalisms. Jessica is a President’s Fellow, a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, a 2023-2025 graduate assistant at the Frederick Douglass Center for Leadership Through the Humanities, a 2023-2024 DISCO Graduate Scholar, and a Zinn Education Project Prentiss Charney Fellow. Prior to Jessica’s graduate work, she was a high school social studies teacher, department chair, instructional coach, and a participant in the 2018 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Teacher Institute at Duke University. Jessica resides in her home city, the U.S. colony of Washington, D.C., with her loving partner.
Co-Sponsor:
The African American Civil War Memorial and Museum
Posted: March 13, 2025