Located in Delaware City along the Mike Castle Trail, a half-acre of land was purchased by five trustees of the African Union Church in 1835 for $80 where a church, now razed, was built with only the cemetery remaining. The church and cemetery served residents of Polktown, one of Delaware’s earliest free Black settlements. Among the marked graves are five veterans of the United States Colored Troops, identified by the government-issued headstones. While headstones mark additional graves in the cemetery, many remain unmarked. The veterans buried in the cemetery served in a segregated army fighting for freedom and full citizenship. Laws passed in 1867, 1873, and 1879 ordered the War Department to provide headstones for America’s Civil War veterans. More than 950 free Blacks from Delaware served in the war. #BlackHistoryMonth2021 #EquityCSD #powerofwecsd