"One influential African American who was especially eager to join the fight [the Spanish-American War] was Christian Abraham Fleetwood, a Civil War Medal of Honor recipient and a prominent member of Washington, D.C.'s black community. Fleetwood's unsuccessful efforts to gain regimental command in the Volunteer Army in 1898 underscored the severe limitations that existed for black men who wished to serve in America's overseas wars at the turn of the century."