Decoration Day origins recalled: 1865 Charleston ceremonies by formerly enslaved people
I didn’t know about the earliest origin of Memorial Day until I was a grown-ass man —because some folks didn’t want us to. 2021: Memorial Day organizers cut the mic of retired Lt Col Kemter as he discussed how formerly enslaved Americans exhumed remains of soldiers to give them proper burials. 🧵
Christopher Webb896Officials from the local American Legion post deliberately cut the audio, but here’s the story of Memorial Day’s Black roots…
MadGreek 🧿334Great article here. I only learned about this history a few years ago. Shocking that no one talks about it. Just another event white folks want to white wash! time.com/5836444/blac...
JJ in DC101Digging a little deeper: Do you know about the complicated history of African Americans living & working on the former plantation that became Arlington Cemetery?
sanne27.bsky.social76I am 75 and have never heard of this either. Our government wants to keep USA uninformed of many truths of Black History.
wendyspirit.bsky.social46I learned about it here today. The erasure of our history continues to be our greatest barrier to progress. Shameful. bsky.app/profile/wend...
Ed_in_NOVA32For a country that prides itself on free speech, it seems there's a lot of mic-cutting, book banning, and show canceling.
Carson31Bigotry and racism are alive and well in Trump’s sh!thole country.
Just Me29David Blight, a Yale history professor, points to May 1, 1865, when as many as 10,000 people, many of them Black, held a parade, heard speeches and dedicated the graves of Union dead in Charleston, South Carolina. A total of 267 Union troops had died at a Confederate prison and. . .
Princess of Roots🦋🪶🐳🐕🐈🌈🎷🎹🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🇺🇸🇫🇷🇺🇦🇨🇮🇮🇱🇨🇦🇩🇰🇨🇺🇫🇴🇫🇮🇳🇱🏴🇺🇳🇰🇾🇭🇲🇳🇬 🇧🇯28My 2xgreat grandfather and his son were prisoners at Andersonville. They are buried there too. When the war was over, former, local enslaved people along with Clara Barton reinterred the dead properly with names along with their numbers in rows. Descendants still volunteer to maintain the cemetery.
Jack North23I'm a grown-ass man who only learned of this just now. Damn!
Steph K21Thank you. Thank you for sharing this.
Christian Petersen19The White House, America, all of it.
brightnessinsight.bsky.social16😡they are so scared of people knowing the truth about the African Americans contribution not only to the economy , building and infrastructure of this country but also their service in the Armed Forces I’m sure they’ll come up with some sorry excuse about what happened here.
GabrielleLA13This reminds me that I learned about Japanese internment in Law School
Holly ❌👑13Important history lesson for many of us Christopher!
tat1111.bsky.social12Shutting off his mic as he tried to enlighten people of the origin of this solemn day is a perfect example of what this racist Republican movement is trying to do to every poc…. silence their voices! The dirty racist white man of course was behind this cheap shot as well, pathetic!!
Melinda-wvu12What I hate to think about on Memorial Day is all the black soldiers who served the country and then had to come home to being segregated again, that really burns me up.
laneo52.bsky.social10It pains me to say this, but the draft dodger who DID in fact call our sacred WWI & WWII fallen - “suckers & losers” - will be laying a wreath at ANC 🇺🇸🗽🪦. Who ya gonna believer, - he who has LIED 🤥 to U.S. > 50,000 times or 4 ⭐️ generals??(;)?
🥒🐸🌮🦋 Anemia B10That is absolutely fucking pathetic. 😠 These personally powerless little white men make me ill. The service of black men can be considered even greater service because of they were treated. I am a USAF brat who was taught to respect service. No matter their color. My father would be disgusted.
On life's Journey9I didn't know=True story of Memorial Day: 1864, Charleston's freed black slaves decorated the mass grave site of captured Union soldiers & freed black slaves. 10,.000 >black residents held a May 1 tribute. Now watch Trump-GOP try to remove Memorial Day as a USA holiday. time.com/5836444/blac...
Sandiemothragator9I'm 73 years old. As far as I can remember, this is the first I've ever heard of this. Thank you. It's nice to learn something wonderful.
John Zimmerman8Every damn American should know this history.
NurseGenius8History facts making racists uncomfortable Oh no!!! The people who don’t use the word slave because they were household helpers.
linds8As a white woman all of the history I was never taught in grades k-12 completely guts me …. but mostly, it pisses me the fuck off. I feel ripped off.
Peter Principle8And that was under Biden. Today, they'd have him arrested and dragged off the podium.
Kevin Dilley8My current hometown and many of us were ashamed and angered by this. Keep shining the light, it’s the only way forward.
Jillian Kate7That is just awful. American black history IS history. American indigenous history IS history. American women's history IS history. American history is not just what pale faced men did.
Sharan Newman7I learned about this on Finding Your Roots. This was at Gettysburg.
Fairly Feminist ❤️🤍💙6Some people can’t handle the truth.
David Collier5I’d never heard of this, very moving. Hopefully there will be a Streisand effect and his speech will go viral
One Who Knows5They cut his mic????? WTAF
🦋Fiona McGee🦋🚫👑5Cut the mic? Damn haters going to hate. 🤬
Liberal Amigo 🇨🇦🇺🇦🇲🇽🌮5Cutting a mic will never erase history.
Matt Quinlivan 5I'd call this country a shithole, but that'd be unnecessarily generous. Goddamnit!! I'm tired of being pissed off all the time. HOW IS THAT PIECE OF SHIT BACK IN THE WHITE HOUSE!!!???
ScottG.5They can not mute this www.youtube.com/watch?v=35eX...
Ruth 😯🤯🍄4They cannot erase history. I love the story and had never heard about it until this year. Keep spreading the word!
Expatina4Lieutenant Colonel Kempter is owed a great vote of thanks for speaking out. 🙏
Tedm2114Cut the mike...I wasn't aware of this. No words except where does this lingering neanderthal hatred come from.
UWOPS4"White Christian Nationalists" know that their story falls apart when confronted with the truth. So rather than go with the truth, they attack it and the messengers of truth. They are not Christians, they are not Patriots, but they are despicably anti-American.
CatLady Lil4John Brown's body is a'moulderin in the grave...but the truth goes marching on.
rosiesdigs.bsky.social4I learned something and now I’m pissed the damn nuns didn’t teach any of that.
Sokyle2 🇺🇸 🇰🇷 🇫🇷 🇺🇦 🇹🇭 🇹🇼 🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️3Very interesting ... worth listening to The pope just apologize for the Catholic Church's involvement in slavery America should do the same
mongo75.bsky.social3Thanks for post! Good to pull back the curtains on what we weren’t taught in school.
terminator2030.bsky.social3Beautiful piece of history I have just learned today. Shame on the bigots that continue to deny facts.
Joe Darkmoon3This is the world conservative Christians prayed, rallied and voted for. We are here because of their desire to spread suffering and misery to the world.
jmatuscak.bsky.social3Oh geez, I hate it when my home town shows up again doing something stupid. BTW, the mayor at the end of the video ended up resigning a week after saying in a council meeting that allowing ice fishing on a local lake would encourage prostitution. That also went viral.
Trixiebelden753Great lesson in free speech and how they want to erase history
BillyDee 🇨🇦 (CA)3History is such an awful thing. It forces us to look in the mirror.
Mannycat3this needs to be taught in school schools!!
Tom Calhoun3Nothing is too low for these sadistic assholes.
Grumpy Grandpa2If he doesn’t say it it didn’t happen right?
santa-guy.bsky.social2And Trump gets away with lying saying there was no slavery in the USA!
Lu 💙2Tried to control the narrative Terrible people in this world !
Geo2Why do racists think they own this place? Many, probably most, want to hear this speech. But because of a few idiot racists, shit liked this happens. Racists are under the mistaken belief that most people agree with them. They are wrong and are abusing people's good nature.
Doc Jerr2Systemic injustice relies on quiet, everyday compliance. Drawing from 40 years in juvenile justice and social reform, I wrote "This Banality of Evil" to confront the bureaucratic systems that compromise our humanity. Watch the video, reflect, and refuse to look away: youtu.be/njQcZglwRmc?...
CL2Yet they didn’t cut Trump’s mic as he bragged about how many have died under his watch 🤬
Cody Vidmar2Hudson, Ohio. Where John Brown built a house and helped slaves escape the South. The same community did this, because of course they did.
Uncle CAA2We need to teach our minority voters how to a) vote! And b) recognize their own self interests in doing so. We had too many Hispanic, Muslim & Black voters stay home or vote GOP in 2024. Now, as a result of giving Trump the power again in '24, we may never see a real & fair election here again!
Divanyst2The blatant attacks on Black life is crazy work. We need to move forward knowing that the staunch racists will never change and plan accordingly.
Carol Stanton2Certainly can't have citizens knowing the truth about the origins of Memorial Day -- especially in FL.
vibc49.bsky.social2Why can’t the rednecks wrap their heads around the truth? Sorry but the USA is one fucked up country.
Why any American of color would choose to serve in the US military under THIS blatantly racist regime in 2026 is beyond me! It's like a black American choosing to be a member of the KKK! Talk about hurting your own self interest and those you love!
thegirlnextdoor.bsky.social2As a kid, I used to wonder why my Mother and her friends called it Decoration Day.
Democrats Organizing For America2So there have been "racial incidents" in Hudson... and they react by SUPPRESSING HISTORY of the first Memorial Day and a ceremony that brought blacks and whites together? You deal with racial tensions by letting the oppressed have a voice, not by silencing their stories!
Nctwadumela-He who Greets With Fire!2Thank you for this, Chris.
LeahC2Colonizers have been stealing EVERYTHING and calling it "theirs" since the beginning. Native American history, Black American history, Mexican American History, and so on. They are master manipulators and illusionists.
Jodi Jacobson2But this was under Biden. Why?
RaySCline2Shame. Eternal shame upon the KKKowards who cut off Lt Col Kemter. They tarnished the event and showed that THEY are NOT true AMERICAN patriots. God Bless AMERICA!
DocLT2Another contribution to the National well-being we might never have had without our African-American citizenry.
jhoffman123.bsky.social2That is despicable! Why are they so afraid of history. Know it and learn from it.
theOsakaDude (D. Paterson)2America still has a huge problem. Jesus, I wouldn't have left the podium until they turned the mic back on.
Reminder that formerly enslaved Black people started Memorial Day. It was initially called Decoration Day as they decorated the graves of Union troops. “As He died to make men holy let us die to make men free”
Eric Michael Garcia422When I was a young White House intern, they took us to Arlington National Cemetery and they took us to see the graves of the first freedmen buried there after combat. It’s a reminder that some of the greatest defenders of American freedom are often the ones to whom freedom hasn’t been afforded yet.
WinterSchminter16I remember calling it Decoration Day, and I was born in the early 50's. It wasn't just WW2 that caused the change, as some have suggested here.
reb13I just learned this history today after reading an email from Juan C. Andrade, the CEO of USAA. I thought the paragraph on the origins of Memorial Day was suspiciously lacking in detail.
Elizabeth Wrigley-Field8I did not know that!! Thank you -- I will tell my kid about this today
penguins18.bsky.social6This interpretation is hotly (if good naturedly) debated, btw. There is definitely one documented occasion on the lines of what you describe in Charleston, but it wasn't the first and most of the early Decoration Day events were organized by white women, mostly war widows.
weremensh.bsky.social2The most rewritten line in that song, unfortunately.
Our modern Memorial Day began as Decoration Day in 1865, founded by 10,000 newly freed Black Americans in Charleston who built a proper cemetery and held a massive parade for fallen Union soldiers. Remembering its true origin ensures this vital Black history is never forgotten.
silenceredux.bsky.social7Black History is U.S. History.
KatB ☮️5My grandma used to call it Decoration Day.
Thomas5Weird they didn't teach that in school isnt it
William Thompson3Some of us appreciate freedom more than others.
sanfordme.bsky.social2Your first post made me think about how we should be memorializing the POC who have fought for civil rights as much as the ones who fought for our freedom. This post teaches me history I didn’t know, thanks. Well done.
![The Origins of Memorial Day
At the April 1901 dedication of the General John A. Logan Memorial, speakers like President William McKinley and New York Senator Chauncey Depew spoke of the nation’s debt to General Logan for his General Order No.11, which in 1868 formalized the annual floral decoration of the graves on Memorial Day, also referred to as Decoration Day. While there is a historical debate over where and when the very first observation of Memorial Day took place, one of the earliest recorded observations of the holiday indisputably took place in Charleston, South Carolina, in the closing days of the Civil War.
On May 1, 1865, the freed people of Charleston gathered at the old racetrack to decorate the graves of 257 Union prisoners of war who had been hastily buried by the retreating Confederate army. The largely African American crowd watched the men of the 35th and 104th United States Colored Troops (USCT), along with the men of the famed 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, perform drills before listening to speeches addressing the meaning of the long and bloody war. When the ceremonies were finished, the crowd dispersed to lay flowers on the graves of the men who had died fighting for Union and for liberty. [1]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:kxhqburzyuz4guwl6kqaowh7/bafkreie3rpr2kqqbuf4d2jq2ej4lt6jdzmex6o4zpjue4h6evo3jdlbv4q)
