Do You Really Know the Origins of Memorial Day?

By Reetika Gupta, Contributing Writer

Every year on the last Monday in May, Americans observe Memorial Day. Historians also refer to the day as Decoration Day, as it originated in the years following the Civil War. The day is meant to pay tribute to everyone who gave up their lives in service to the nation. The custom of holding observances, which includes laying of flowers on burial sites, while remembering and honoring those who gave their lives in military service goes back to hundreds, if not thousands, of years. 

Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the commander-in-chief of a Union veterans organization called the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) established the day as Decoration Day. It was designated for the purpose of strewing flowers and decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion. Major General John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day should be observed on May 30. Many believe that the date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.

Now … you just got a brush-up on the history of Memorial Day. Well, here is the catch: Regardless of how it’s celebrated, Memorial Day’s origins remain debated—and even controversial. The roots of the day are extremely complex and are, in fact, tied to slavery and the defeat of the Confederacy. 

The Disputed History of Memorial Day

The key story about the day’s bloody history has been nearly erased from public memory and most official accounts, including that offered by the Department of Veterans Affairs. In the years following the Civil War, women, especially in the South, began tending to the graves of fallen soldiers regardless of which side they had fought for. This act of kindness and their willingness to overlook past divisions was lauded by many.  

Francis Miles Finch, an American judge, poet and academic associated with the early years of Cornell University, wrote the popular poem “The Blue and The Grey,” praising the efforts. Some scholars have noted that the practice of visiting and decorating graves with flowers represents the true roots of the holiday. Others point out President Lincoln’s commemoration of the dead at Gettysburg in 1863 as a possible origin of the holiday. 

The Forgotten Black History of Memorial Day

One of the earliest commemorations was organized by recently freed slaves. Historians like Pulitzer Prize winner David Blight have tried to raise awareness of freed slaves who decorated soldiers’ graves a year earlier to make sure their story gets told too. 

According to Blight’s 2001 book “Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory,” origins can be traced to May 1, 1865, when a large group of recently freed African Americans held a parade in Charleston, South Carolina, to honor fallen Union soldiers. At least 257 prisoners had died, many of disease, and were buried in unmarked graves. Black residents of Charleston decided to give them a proper burial. According to Blight, two reports were found in The New York Tribune and The Charleston Courier. A crowd of 10,000 people, mostly freed slaves along with some white missionaries, staged a parade around the racetrack. Additionally, 3,000 black school children carried bouquets of flowers and sang “John Brown’s Body” in praise of John Brown, an American abolitionist leader. This tribute “gave birth to an American tradition,” Blight wrote. “The war was over, and Memorial Day had been founded by African Americans in a ritual of remembrance and consecration.” 

Once the war was over and Charleston was rebuilt in the 1880s, the city’s white residents likely had little interest in remembering an event held by former slaves to celebrate the Union dead. Dr. Blight found that the African American origins of the day were suppressed largely by white Southerners who reclaimed power after the end of Reconstruction and interpreted Memorial Day as a holiday of reconciliation, marking sacrifices—by white Americans—on both sides. 

The fact that the freed slaves’ Memorial Day tribute is not as well remembered is emblematic of the struggle that would follow, as African Americans’ fight to be fully recognized for their contributions to American society continues to this day.

Resources and Further Reading

https://time.com/5836444/black-memorial-day/

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/holidays/reference/memorial-day/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/26/us/the-unofficial-history-of-memorial-day.html

https://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-memorial-day

https://www.history.com/news/memorial-day-civil-war-slavery-charleston

ttps://www.va.gov/opa/speceven/memday/history.asp

https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/memorial-day-history