Memorial Day: A Time To Remember For All Americans!
Memorial Day is a time to remember. It is more than a day off from work and school. More than a fun day to picnic, hang out with family or barbeque. Wikipedia describes the history of Memorial Day:
The practice of decorating soldiers’ graves with flowers is an ancient custom. Soldiers’ graves were decorated in the U.S. before and during the American Civil War. A claim was made in 1906 that the first Civil War soldier’s grave ever decorated was in Warrenton, Virginia on June 3, 1861, implying the first Memorial Day occurred there. There is authentic documentation that women in Savannah, Georgia decorated soldiers’ graves in 1862. In 1863, the cemetery dedication at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was a ceremony of commemoration at the graves of dead soldiers. Local historians in Boalsburg, PA, claim that ladies there decorated soldiers’ graves on July 4, 1864.As a result, Boalsburg promotes itself as the birthplace of Memorial Day. Following President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865, there were a variety of events of commemoration. The first well-known observance of a Memorial Day-type observance after the Civil War was in Charleston, South Carolina on May 1, 1865. During the war, Union soldiers who were prisoners of war had been held at the Charleston Race Course; at least 257 Union prisoners died there and were hastily buried in unmarked graves. Together with teachers and missionaries, black residents of Charleston organized a May Day ceremony in 1865, which was covered by the New York Tribune and other national papers. The freedmen cleaned up and landscaped the burial ground, building an enclosure and an arch labeled, “Martyrs of the Race Course.” Nearly ten thousand people, mostly freedmen, gathered on May 1 to commemorate the war dead. Involved were about 3,000 school children newly enrolled in freedmen’s schools, mutual aid societies, Union troops, black ministers, and white northern missionaries. Most brought flowers to lay on the burial field. Today the site is used as Hampton Park.
Years later, the celebration would come to be called the “First Decoration Day” in the North. What I didn’t realize is that African Americans were an integral part of the events leading up to the legalization of Memorial Day in becoming an official holiday. If you work with children of color, please find ways to include them in the positive aspects of the community, the society…and the world! It could make all the difference in their self-esteem, goal-setting and future aspirations! They will make a difference in others’ lives when you make a difference in their lives!
