Most Washingtonians are accustomed to participating in guided tours only when entertaining out of town guests. We all know we’ll have to trek out to the monuments with family and friends at least a few times a year, so being a tourist in our own city voluntarily at other times might not sound terribly appealing. But try not to think of the tours being offered in this coming weekend’s WalkingTown DC, a series of 60 free walking tours through the city’s neighborhoods by Cultural Tourism DC, as touristy. Instead, consider them an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of a place you probably think you already know.

That’s certainly what DCist discovered when we headed out on the Before Harlem, There Was U Street tour this past Saturday. Normally offered by Washington Walks, one of D.C.’s top guided tour agencies, the tour typically kicks off at the 13th St. entrance to the U Street metro station, with a view of neighborhood landmarks like the Lincoln Theater and Ben’s Chili Bowl. But this day the Washington Walks guides had to improvise, since a large university group had been told to meet at the 10th Street entrance. Phyllis Fleming, a veteran guide as well as a freelance musician and music teacher, ably began the tour where it usually ends: at the African American Civil War Memorial.

Perhaps because it’s situated so far away from the National Mall, or because of its understated design, or probably just because it’s located at the top of a metro station I’ve hurried in and out of daily for years, I had never taken a really close look at this memorial, nor had I visited the adjacent African American Civil War Museum. The Wall of Honor at the memorial lists the names of 209,145 United States Colored Troops (USCT) who served in the Civil War. When you learn that for every star next to a name, there was more than one soldier with that name who served the Union, and take a good look at just how many names are listed there, you start to get a sneaking suspicion there is much about the Civil War you never learned in school.

Filed Under: African American, African American civil war memorial, africanamericans, American Civil War Memorial, Chili Bowl, civil war, Cultural Tourism DC, dcist, design, friends, Harlem, landmarks, lincoln theater, museum, music, national mall, neighborhoods, Observing DC, the city, the wall, theater, tourism, U street, united states, university, walkingtown dc, war, War Memorial, washington, washington walks,