Rocky Mount USCT Monument
Essentials:
- Stands in Rocky Mount, Virginia.
- Erected in January 2026 by the Raising the Shade Project
- Fourteen foot tall monument with a bronze sculpture of a USCT soldier, dedicated to USCT soldiers born in Franklin County, Virginia.
- First statuary monument dedicated to the USCT in Virginia.
Raising the Shade Monument
The Raising the Shade Monument stands on the grounds of the Historic First Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, Virginia. The monument honors the Black men from Franklin County, Virginia who served in the United States Colored Troops in the Civil War.
The monument is fourteen feet tall in total. The base pedestal is made of granite and lists the names of the seventy Black men born in Franklin County who served in the USCT from 1863 to 1866. Atop the pedestal is a seven-foot-tall bronze sculpture of a USCT soldier. The sculpture was created by Rick Weaver and Paul DiPasquale. DiPasquale is best known for creating the Arthur Ashe monument on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, while Weaver had previously created the bust of John Chavis displayed on the campus of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.
The Monument was erected on January 18, 2026 by the Raising the Shade Project, a community organization created by the Franklin County NAACP and funded by Virginia Tech’s Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia Project. Throughout 2024 and 2025, Raising the Shade hosted various community events and educational forums designed to highlight the less known stories of Black soldiers from Franklin County. The erection of the Raising the Shade monument was the culmination of these multi-year efforts. Raising the Shade is one of very few statuary monuments to commemorate USCT soldiers nationwide, and the first in Virginia.
Finding the Raising the Shade Monument:
The grounds of the Historic First Baptist Church: 135 Angle Street, Rocky Mount, VA 24151
From Blacksburg, take US-460 East and I-81 North to Roanoke, then take I-585 and US-220 South to Rocky Mount. After about 22 miles, exit onto N Main St in Rocky Mount, then turn left onto Franklin St. The grounds of the First Baptist Church and the monument will be on your left, near the intersection of Franklin and High St.
For More Information:
Raising the Shade, a website providing more information on the seventy USCT soldiers commemorated by the monument.
Mason Adams, "Statue Honoring Black Union Soldiers Unveiled in Rocky Mount,” WVTF, January 18, 2026.
Thomas J Brown, Civil War Monuments and the Militarization of America (University of North Carolina Press, 2019): 287.
Kirk Savage, Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War and Monument in Nineteenth-Century America (Princeton University Press, 1997).