European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 12, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday november 12,1987 the stars and stripes pages names of All Viet War dead read aloud Springfield to. A faculty and students at Southwest Missouri state University Are Reading aloud the names of Marc than 58,000 men and women who died in they Are perhaps he most Anonymous of Ameri Ca s War heroes. Even some students of history Don t know that men like Absalom Ailstock Cato pm it and pomp scr bump fought in the revolutionary War. But these Black patriots Anil 5.000 others who battled for american Independence and in some cases their own Freedom May soon be remembered next o Lincoln and Washington. Interior Secretary Donald p. Model has approved plans that would allow a National memorial to the Black patriots in Constitution gardens Between the Lincoln memorial and Washington Monument the department announced. The memorial project which began two years ago and remains at least sever Al years away As it weaves through Washington s bureaucratic web is not a me Morial to Blacks but a Monument to Freedom says inc project s founder. This memorial really in t a memorial loan individual. Or it group of individuals said Maurice a. Barboza a 42-year old Black attorney. It s a memorial to a concept the concept of the struggle for free Dom. And that s a Universal concept some thing which i think any american can identify with. Because it really defines Suasa  people Barboza said two centuries of ignoring Blacks role in the american revolution continues to Hurt race relations and he thinks the memorial can help heal inc wounds. It has an effect on inc Way we look at each other he said. If we think Blacks made in contribution to the country if we think they were All slaves Al the time of the revolution. And Blacks did t have any thing to do with the civil War Cyl White people were dying in order to free Blacks it creates a tremendous pressure on Young people to develop  Barboza s Mission has led him to sell his Virginia Home quit his Job As a lobbyist for the american bar association and devote his time solely to the memorial. It started with a Little boy looking at a faded photograph at his grandmother s House. Barboza remembers staring up at a yellowed photograph of Bis great great Grandfather a civil War Soldier and wondering about inc Man and his Era. Years later after graduating from rut Gers Law school and working As a lobbyist in the health. Education and welfare department in the Carter administration Barbo a started a private project to find his roots. Spending hours sifting through documents Al the National archives warho 7.0. Traced his lineage Back to colonial limes discovering la ii a Distant relative served in inc revolutionary War. I Roud of his heritage Harbo a urged his aunt. Lena Santos Ferguson to join the daughters of the american revolution. That resulted in a four year fight ending with Dar admittance. Spurred by that event Barboza went to Congress in 1983 where he found a Champion for his cause in a White re publican woman from Connecticut rep. Nancy l Johnson who represented Plainville conn., the town where the Barboza family grew up. Frankly i. As a graduate in history from one of the Best institutions in inc nation was never really conscious of the role Blacks played in the american Revo Lution Johnson said Johnson and sen. Albert Gore. A Tenn. Guided a Monument Bill through Congress president Cagan signed it last year. Now Barboza wants the memorial in Constitution gardens and that requires More layers of bureaucratic approvals. 6 killed 2 Hurt As fire sweeps through Home Newark