The stories of African American soldiers from twelve U.S. wars
African American Veterans MonumentHonoring Our Heroes Mobile Interpretive Videos
Visit ProjectThese powerful videos depict lesser-known stories about African American soldiers from the Revolutionary War to the present day. Night Kitchen produced the script and combined professional voiceover, archival imagery, reenactment footage, custom motion graphics, and contemporary news media. The twelve videos illustrate key moments across 250 years of history, providing onsite interpretation at the African American Veterans Monument.
Visitors can watch these videos on their mobile device by scanning the QR codes embedded on signage designed by Studio Tectonic. The videos reside on a mobile-optimized website that augments the interpretive messaging of the monument and provides a permanent media and web presence to enhance the visitor's experience for years to come.
The videos created for this project are also available in the online exhibition page of the new African American Veterans Monument website. There they are supported by additional imagery and resources, inviting visitors to dive deeper into their favorite stories after visiting the monument.
Historic imagery of soldiers and heroes.
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Each of the pillars representing a war or conflict bears a QR code … The stories include Crispus Attucks, the first man killed in the American Revolutionary War. They also tell of the Harlem Hellfighters, a unit that trained in the Jim Crow south and then had to fight as part of a French Army unit in WWI because of segregation.
There’s not a war this country has ever been in that somebody who looked like me wasn’t on the frontlines. Not ever, and they’re going to understand that because school children are going to take visits to this monument not just from Buffalo and Western New York but around the world.
This is the first African American monument in the country that honors veterans in all the wars. Many areas and many spots may have a statue that honors Blacks in Vietnam or something. But there’s no other monument that honors all the wars with African Americans and that’s why this is very unique.
