[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 25 (Thursday, February 25, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S793]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          BLACK HISTORY MONTH

  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I rise today during Black History Month 
to honor the history and legacy of the First Kansas Colored Infantry, a 
regiment of former slaves, which was the first group of Black men to 
fight in the American Civil War.
  This regiment of escaped Black slaves was the first organized into 
service for the U.S. Government. They were commanded by COL James M. 
Williams. For the first time during the Civil War, Black troops were 
fighting alongside White troops in the name of freedom and equality.
  In June 1862, Kansas Senator James H. Lane started recruiting troops 
from among free Blacks, especially the increasing numbers of fugitive 
slaves in Kansas, men who had fled their masters in Missouri and 
Arkansas. The progressive nature of Kansas made it appealing to slaves 
fleeing Missouri and Arkansas as soon as the Civil War fighting began. 
By August 1862, Colonel Williams assembled 500 men in a camp outside 
Leavenworth. These men fought bravely in July of 1863, at Cabin Creek, 
when the First Kansas Colored Infantry along with other Union forces 
worked to drive the Confederates out of nearly all of Arkansas.
  President Lincoln also took note of the bravery of the First Kansas 
Colored Infantry when he noted to a group of visitors from South 
Carolina who came to complain about the arming of Blacks: ``You say you 
will not fight to free Negroes. Some of them seem to be willing enough 
to fight for you.'' These men of the First Kansas Colored Infantry 
continued to fight until the end of the Civil War, being credited with 
seeing action at Sherwood, MO; Honey Springs; Indian Territory; and 
Lawrence, KS; Poison Springs, AR. They saw more regular combat than any 
other black regiment of the war. In October 1865, the men of the First 
Kansas Colored Infantry were discharged at Fort Leavenworth.
  Frederick Douglass once stated, ``In a composite nation like ours, as 
before the law, there should be no rich, no poor, no high, no low, no 
white, no black, but common country, common citizenship, equal rights 
and a common destiny.'' These men were willing to give their lives in 
the hopes for a better future, an equal future, for their children. It 
is a struggle that continues today, and we look to our history as we 
continue to engage in it.
  Mr. President, the men of the First Kansas Colored Infantry helped 
shape this nation into a society of freedom and a beacon of hope around 
the world. I ask that we all thank them and honor their legacy of 
service.

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