Boston dedicates monument to Civil War nurse Susie Baker King Taylor at Mount Hope Cemetery

BOSTON — July 22, 2026 — Boston formally receives monument to Civil War nurse and educator Susie Baker King Taylor at Mount Hope Cemetery. The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War's Colonel Robert Gould Shaw Camp No. 54 organized the July 22 dedication ceremony and transferred the newly erected monument to the city, ending what speakers described as a 108-year gap in recognition — Taylor, who died in 1912, had lain in an unmarked grave until her name was recently engraved on her headstone. Former Mayor Kim Janey delivered the keynote address, calling Taylor "an unsung hero that helped pave the way for so many black women in our city and in our country," and noting that Taylor's grave went unmarked despite her being the first Black U.S. Army nurse, the first Black educator to openly teach Black people in Georgia, and the first Black woman to publish a memoir of wartime experiences. Rod Frazier was credited from the podium with driving the monument project from conception to completion, with funding provided by a Veterans' Heritage Grant and the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts.