Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Tags “Martyrs of the Race Course”

Tag: “Martyrs of the Race Course”

The first Memorial Day was Black

As we pause to remember the nation’s war dead, it’s worth remembering that Memorial Day was first celebrated by Black Union troops and free Black Americans in Charleston, South Carolina at the end of the Civil War. The free Black population of Charleston, primarily consisting of former slaves, engaged in a series of celebrations to proclaim the meaning of the war as they saw it.