Just a reminder that enslaved people invented Memorial Day in the aftermath of the Civil War. I wrote about this history and it’s published in TIME MAGAZINE. https://time.com/3894406/who-invented-memorial-day/
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
Yours is important work as websites are now deleting Black contributions. As you know, Abraham Lincoln said "Without the military help of the Black Freedman, the war against the south could have never been won." Wounded Warrior Project: Nearly 40,000 Black men died in the war, including illness.
I'm a little biased (lol), but Waterloo is federally recognized as the birthplace. It definitely wasn't the first celebration/remembrance of fallen soldiers in the US or the world, but Waterloo made it a more formal/less spontaneous event and allowed it to spread throughout NY and the country.
So I consider Waterloo the birthplace of the national HOLIDAY. The birthplace of the "memorial of fallen soldiers" would probably be the beginning of the US. I'm sure they mourned fallen soldiers after the revolution, but it wasn't any formal or repeatable event like Waterloo made it
The first formal Memorial Day took place in Upstate NY. See Proclamation 3727 from Lyndon B Johnson for more info. Memorials of fallen soldiers stretch back much further than that (and of course include enslaved soldiers), but those did not constitute an annual holiday day as was started in NY.
Of course, the US isn't special as ceremonies/days celebrating and mourning lost soldiers began long before we were a country. Commemorating particular groups of soldiers and their contributions is important, but let's not ignore/misrepresent where the actual "Birth of Memorial Day" occurred.
Now this fact that I did not know because some school teacher I had probably did not know either. Growing up in white schools as I did has it's disadvantages I suppose.
Anyway, what an excellent subject for a "Jeopardy" final!
Comments
One follower
https://clementcharles.substack.com/p/memorial
https://www.blackhistory.com/2018/05/black-people-african-americans-invented-memorial-day-history.html
Anyway, what an excellent subject for a "Jeopardy" final!