“History is not just what we choose to retell. History is also what we choose to recover."
~Sean Eversley Bradwell
"Civil Warriors brings to life voices ignored for too long. The African American experience and perspectives presented in the documentary remind us that there is a continued need to further grabble with our nation's diverse and troubled history. More importantly Civil Warriors increases our understanding of Black agency in the past that textbooks and curriculum ignore in our schools"
~Trinidad Gonzales
Refusing to Forget, Co-Founder
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About CIVIL WARRIORS
CIVIL WARRIORS is a feature film about the experiences of two black families from upstate New York -- fathers and sons who enlisted in the United States Colored Troops (USCT) and fought in the American Civil War. Their compelling true story unfolds through a unique interweaving of historical images with the rhythm and energy of spoken word performance. Contemporary narration guides us and provides historical context as the story unfolds.
The men in CIVIL WARRIORS stood up to fight for freedoms they barely had. They stood up to be counted as men in a country that called them "boy." They fought and died, but their stories go largely untold. The film is not only about individual men, but also about all of the soldiers who fought in the USCT; it is a history of black people as active agents in their own struggle -- as subjects, not objects of the Civil War. Their stories need to be told, not only in order to reclaim their rightful place in the shared history of our nation, but also to remind us that we need to participate and remain vigilant in the ongoing struggle for racial justice in our society.
CIVIL WARRIORS is also a teaching tool; it is the centerpiece of a comprehensive, metacognition-rich educational curriculum designed to meet the standards and goals of the C3 Framework of Social Studies. The curriculum provides structure and guidance for students to learn about the historical facts that are brought to life in the film. Perhaps more importantly, it enables metacognitive exploration of HOW to think about those facts within the context of historical and contemporary social justice movements.
“Once let a man get upon his person the brass letters, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pockets, and there is no power on earth which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship in the United States”.
- Frederick Douglass
