16 individual plates were used in this etching. All of the photographs were copied from photos from Col. Young's personal files. Though African Americans from Young's era are not frequently seen in today's mass media, the dignity of these hard working Americans can be seen first hand in this print. All of the signatures appearing with the photographs were copied by me from the oiginal signatures on the back of each photo.

The following quote appeared in the Boston Evening Transcript in May of 1898 and was written by one of their correspondents:

“The Negro soldiers who come here from the North and West are under the impression that they are as good as white soldiers. They think that the willingness to die on a equality with white men gives them a claim to live on something like an equality with them.”

This quote was written by black radical labor leader Chandler Owen in the January 1918 issue of the Messenger:

“Since when has the subject of race come out of a war with its rights and privileges accorded for such participation? Did not the Negro fight in the Revolutionary War, with Crispus Attucks dying first and came out to be a miserable chattel slave in this country for nearly one hundred years after? Did not the Negro take part in the Spanish-American War? And have not prejudice and race grown in this country since 1898?”