LOL, I’m pretty sure that Chris Rock doesn’t need to be lectured on african american history.

The African American Patriot who gave loyal service to the Continental Army found that the postwar military held no rewards for them. State legislatures like Connecticut and Massachusetts in 1784 and 1785 banned all blacks, free or slave, from military service. Southern states banned all slaves but some states allowed free men to serve in their militias. In 1792, the United States Congress formally excluded the African American from military service, allowing only “free able-bodied white male citizens” to serve.[20]

Many slaves who fought did receive their freedom, but many others did not after their owners reneged on their promise to free them for service in the military.
Despite the added difficulties in African-American genealogy, many descendants of Revolutionary war veterans have been able to document their lineage. Professor Henry Louis Gates and Judge Lawrence W. Pierce, as examples, joined the Sons of the American Revolution.

Seems like a mixed but largely disappointing bag for the black patriots. Their people were still enslaved, promises were often unfulfilled and it would be another 89 years until even the beginning of de jure equality was attained through the Civil War. Then another century before the beginning of de facto equality in much of the country with the passing of the Civil Rights Act. In light of all this I’m not sure Crispus Atticus being the first to die, something I’m absolutely positive Chris already knew, is something one nominally “celebrates.”