African American Civil War Museum Celebrates Reopening in Larger Location

In 1862, Abraham Lincoln went to visit Camp Barker, a contraband camp just south of U Street NW where freed and escaped slaves found sanctuary.

Nearly 150 years later, a photograph of camp residents — the slaves themselves were considered contraband of war — hangs in a museum in that same neighborhood. It shows the campers lined up, holding their hymnals and waiting for the president on a summer day.