Portrait of Black Civil War hero finally put on display in S.C.

A portrait of a Black Reconstruction-era state senator and Civil War hero sat in a South Carolina Statehouse closet for 13 years before finally being put on display Thursday in the Senate chamber without a public ceremony.

Stephen Atkins Swails enlisted with the 54th Massachusetts Infantry. From the blood-soaked sands of Morris Island during the Union assault on Fort Wagner near Charleston, Swails became the first black U.S. Army officer. After the war, he had a political career in South Carolina under difficult conditions.  – Article