First Memorial Day: Decoration Day
https://portside.org/2017-05-29/first-memorial-day-decoration-day
Portside Date:
Author: Bob Wing
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My annual reminder:
Memorial Day has its origins as an African American Celebration of Freedom and the Union Soldiers who died in Charleston, SC!
In 2012 I took this photo of the commemorative plaque of this event which tells the story:
Hampton Park was the site of a famous racetrack but the Confederates commandeered it into an open air prison for Union soldiers.
Horrendously treated, many died.
On May 1, 1865, less than a month after the Confederate surrender ending the Civil War, some 10,000 black people, led by 3,000 children, paraded to the site with armloads of flowers singing freedom songs in what they called Decoration Day.
This must have been virtually every black person in town.
Historians acknowledge that this was the first of the annual events that came to be known as Memorial Day.
Special recognition to Bob Wing, long time leader and activist for justice and peace.