Memorial Day Remembered

The Forgotten Origins of Memorial Day: Honoring the Legacy of African Americans in Charleston

Like so many chapters of American history, the contributions of African Americans to our nation’s story have often been sidelined, rewritten, or erased entirely. One such overlooked chapter involves the origins of Memorial Day. While today’s celebration is marked with parades, flags, and moments of silence, the true roots of Memorial Day begin with a powerful and heartfelt act of remembrance—led by formerly enslaved African Americans in Charleston, South Carolina.

In the aftermath of the Civil War, these newly freed individuals were not just rebuilding their own lives—they were actively shaping the legacy of a nation in recovery. They remembered those who fought and died for their freedom. Memorial Day, originally known as Decoration Day, wasn’t born from a government proclamation. It was born from the hands, hearts, and prayers of a resilient community determined to honor sacrifice and dignity.

Let’s rewind to 1865. While the Civil War was still coming to an end, Confederate forces in Charleston had taken over an old horse racetrack and turned it into a prison camp. Union soldiers held there were subjected to horrific conditions—poor sanitation, starvation, and neglect. Over 250 men died there, their bodies tossed into a mass grave with no markers, no names, and no honor.

When the war finally ended and Confederate troops withdrew, they left behind a city scarred by war and a population of freed slaves determined to heal and rebuild. Learning of the mass grave at the racetrack, a group of African Americans set out to do something extraordinary. They exhumed every one of the fallen Union soldiers and reburied them properly. Over their new resting place, they erected a simple but profound sign: “Martyrs of the Racecourse.”

Then, on May 1, 1865, these American Africans held what would become the first Memorial Day celebration in U.S. history. Over 10,000 people—mostly freed slaves—gathered to honor the Union dead. Children led the way, carrying flowers and singing songs. Families processed around the old racetrack, transforming a place of death into sacred ground.

At the center of the ceremony were African American preachers who offered prayers and read scripture. A children’s choir sang hymns, and the crowd—rich with sorrow and hope—paid their respects to the fallen. It was a powerful, emotional act of remembrance, a deeply American moment grounded in freedom, justice, and gratitude.

This story, however, isn’t widely known. Over the years, the narrative of Memorial Day has shifted, with the origin often attributed to various towns and military traditions. Yet, history is clear: the first large-scale Memorial Day event was led by black Americans who understood the cost of freedom and chose to honor it.

So, as we gather each year to honor those who gave their lives in service to this country, let’s also remember the group of freedmen and women who made sure that the fallen were never forgotten. Their act of courage and compassion is not just a footnote in history—it’s the very foundation of Memorial Day itself.

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Thank you for reading. If this story moved you, share it with someone and help restore the full truth of America’s history—because remembering how we remember is just as important as the act itself.

Slavery Confusion

First of all, if you were a slave there was no confusion---someone else controlled your life, livelihood, and welfare, the confusion I am referring to was the confusion that came from the fact that in the U.S. not all African American people were slaves, and not all white people were slave owners. If you were an African American (someone actually fresh off the boat) or an American African (someone born in America from someone off the boat) there were some cases where you could purchase your own freedom or the freedom of a family member and live as a free person.

In some northern parts of the country, a free colored person could actually live free, protected mostly by the community they were surrounded by. In some places in the South, even a freed person still had to pick a master in order to reside in a county as free. Another form of freedom for colored people was something called a Deed of Manumission. That meant that in cases where a white slave owner had children by a slave woman and did not want his offspring to live their adult lives a slave a deed of manumission was issued; the document would indicate that after a certain age, the slave owner's child or children were to be freed.

This created a problem for the slave owners and merchants and in many cases gave license to slave chasers to add to their income by stealing free African Americans from the north and selling them into slavery in the south as shown in the motion picture 12 Years a Slave. I also believe that this situation created a problem for the slave owners and merchants because if it could be proven that they had acted unlawfully and acquired an African American with free papers or a deed of manumission they would be forced to give them up and suffer the financial loss created by the shady deal.

So there could be mothers that were slaves who had children that were free, a husband that was free with a wife and children still a slave; and since, at that time, slaves were not considered citizens of the U.S. that same thinking applied to a freed slave. What all this amounted to was freedom without any of the rights of citizenship for the American African.  While not all American Africans were slaves they were, for the most part, all treated that way. Juneteenth celebrates all of the enslaved souls that were finally one day (in June) able to join the ranks of free people.

And while at the end of slavery in the U.S. African American, and American African families were in many cases still separated from each other by hundreds of years of forced separation and insensitivity. Suddenly the slaves were free with no land and property of their own. Many of those who were finally able to make their own way in the world would learn that even some of the abolitionists who worked so hard to help them gain their freedom still didn't relish the thought of those same ex-slaves living next door to them. Being free from slavery didn't mean being free from the racial stigma of slavery; at that point, I suppose the bright spot was the confusion about slavery was all gone; because at least here in this country (after the passage of the 13th Amendment) there was no more slavery.

The Amendments

Abraham Lincoln did not live long enough to see the amendments that would follow his Emancipation Proclamation going into effect to help those the Civil War set free. One by one the roadblocks installed by the institution of slavery began to fall. Slaves were not considered U.S. citizens even though African Americans fought in the Civil War for the north, and the south but, the African American troops were unable to participate in elections and unable to vote. The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were enacted to address those issues.

• The 13th Amendment outlawed slavery throughout the entire United States, followed by the 
• The 14th Amendment made black people citizens of the United States and the 
• The 15th amendment gave black men the right to vote.

The Freedmen's Bureau was set up to help thousands of newly freed planters and laborers reconnect with family members, the bureau was used to teach them to read and write and provide temporary shelter. The Freedmen's Bureau also had many other useful uses granted to them by the War Department; one of those other uses was making sure that blacks and whites learned to work together during reconstruction. Assisting ex-slaves into the working roles as a paid laborer.

It helped me to learn these things because until then "reconstruction" was a word I had heard but had no clue how reconstruction was supposed to work. My reading on the subject showed me that even if Abraham Lincoln had survived the job of somehow forgetting about four years of war that had destroyed an entire way of life for blacks and whites were not about to go smoothly, to put it politely. As far as reconstruction was concerned there was the ideal (a plan) then there was a reality (the plan nixed) by Lincoln's vice president Andrew Johnson.

In spite of the Freedmen's Bureau, many African American families were never able to reunite. One of the other organizations I plan to write a post about is the American Colonization Society an organization made up of slave owners, merchants, even some abolitionists for the purpose of provided passage to Africa for hundreds of ex-slaves and their families. In spite of the fact that many of the black people making the trip to Africa had nothing in common with the African people there except for the color of their skin. The small colony of English speaking black people carried to the African speaking continent would eventually form the nation of Liberia.

Learning this fact solved a long-term mystery for me; for years I had wondered why some of my African American friends, during my day in Jr College, had taken on African sounding names, and the only person I had ever met from Africa (Liberia) had an American sounding name. Reading about the American Colonization Society helped me understand my source of wonder. Americans with African names, and Africans with American names. To me, The Juneteenth Day Celebrates celebrates all of the above, and then some.