The African American Civil War Memorial Museum in Shaw will reopen to the public on Wednesday, Sept. 30, after years of delays caused by the pandemic and funding shortfalls.

The free museum at 1925 Vermont Ave. NW is housed in the historic Grimke School building near the U Street corridor. It was founded in 1999 by Frank Smith, a civil rights pioneer who helped establish the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) while attending Morehouse College in Atlanta from 1959 to 1962.

Smith, now the museum's executive director, spent years registering Black voters across Mississippi and Alabama with SNCC before winning a seat on the D.C. Council, where he represented Ward 1 from 1983 to 1999. In 1992, he secured congressional permission to build an African American Civil War memorial on federal land in the U Street corridor. That bronze statue, surrounded by the names of 209,145 members of the U.S. Colored Troops (USCT), was unveiled in 1998.

The Council of the District of Columbia marked Smith's 84th birthday on Thursday, Sept. 17 by wishing him well on the reopening.

"I have been thinking and praying and preaching and carrying on about this for all these many years, and I'm glad to say that we've got a date now that we can rely upon," Smith told Washingtonian in March 2025, when the museum was still working toward a full opening.

The 15,000-square-foot space tells the stories of Black Civil War soldiers through live reenactments, educational videos and performances in a 100-seat auditorium, according to the Washingtonian profile. Planned exhibits described at that time included a video of Michelle Obama discussing two ancestors who served in the USCT, a "Hall of Heroes" spotlighting African American service members throughout history and a "Bullets to Ballots" exhibit tracing post-Civil War voting rights.

The museum's website confirms the Sept. 30 date but does not list a schedule of events for opening day.

After the reopening, the museum will be open Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is closed Sunday and Monday. Admission is free. The museum can be reached at 202-667-2667.