Say you’ve been charged by a museum with developing a display that would discuss the African American experience within the Union. What would your display look like? What would it feature? How would you address various questions?
The floor is open.
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Crossroads 
I would display signs or images of signs advertising Black tradesmen or businesses in the North, and then go on to show that while the Free Black northerners were welcome to fix the paneling in the dining room they were not generally welcome as guests in the drawing room.
I would display images depicting the New York Draft Riot and pint to resentment by White [mostly Irish] tradesmen and longshoremen in NY City toward the thought of thousands of newly freed Blacks flooding north to take their jobs for less money.
I would also display the story of some 175 regiments of US Colored Troops who served in the war, though most were not front line, but garrison, and labor units.
Finally I would show that Frederick Douglass and his friends, the Black leaders in the North, were influential at changing societal norms in race relations to some small extent, and modifying Lincoln’s views from anti-slavery to near racial acceptance on an equal footing. [And that Lincoln was smart enough to realize that ending slavery was a huge societal change and trying to force equality on White society would simply make reconstruction unworkable.]
the Underground railroad, the history of the African Meeting House in Boston,
the history of emancipation in the North.
but also “Sundown” towns in free soil states where Blacks might not have been enslaved but certainly weren’t welcome
the NY Draft Riots and mention all the causes.
and a section on Fredrick Douglas and how he came to be a respected member of society
and of course the story of the USCT and their contribution to Northern victory.
and how after the war that tha\t didn’t get them much of an upgrade in status compared to how it did for the Irish and Germans who fought in great numbers for the Union
I’m not at all sure it took that much smarts to recognize the huge societal change. I think Grant wanted to annex Santo Domingo for the sake of the freedmen who he saw would suffer greatly because of the change. But do you think there were those who that tried to “force equality on White society,” and if so who were they and how did they do it or wish to?
The status of African Americans changed rapidly during the war years. I would chose some representative black people and chart their various fortunes. I read “The Fiery Trial” recently, and was struck by Lincoln’s evolving views, and use him or other whites and their changes.