Mayor honors Black service members at memorial with a complex history in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and roughly a dozen minority veterans placed wreaths at the foot of the All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors on Logan Circle on Memorial Day.

The memorial has a complicated history.

"The All Wars Memorial stands in honor of Black soldiers and sailors who served this nation across generations of conflict, often while still fighting for equality at home," Mayor Cherelle Parker told a crowd of roughly 60 people under gray skies.

Created in 1927, it took seven years for the sculpture to find a home.

No neighborhood wanted it. The memorial would eventually end up in Fairmount Park.

That is, until Mike Roepel and others led an effort to have it moved to Logan Circle in 1994.

"When the sculpture was first brought to my attention, it was in poor condition, sited in a remote location in West Fairmount Park," said Roepel, president of the All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors' Committee.

Now it's the location where these men and women of color come to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

"It's very difficult to be here every Memorial Day because we lost so many of my comrades during the war," Army veteran Hugh Bobo, who served in Vietnam, told Action News.

Mayor Cherelle Parker calls the history of the All Wars Memorial one of persistence and a symbol of effort and sacrifice for Black soldiers and sailors.