CanadaNews’ Reporter Notes

Did you know that African-Americans contributed to the very first Memorial Day? Did you know the reason why we are not in the office today is because of a group of carpenters?

Memorial Day is a day to remember those in uniform who have paid the highest sacrifice for their country. They have worn the American Flag on their sleeve; or wore the colours of the blue and the grey, or they took up arms as the city of Washington was burned, or they fought against their own King in independence. Whatever the case, these brave men and women did what may of us cannot do: stood up for us.

America is a fragile country because it is filled with contradictions. Those contradictions could be a hindrance for the progression of American prosperity. But someone, Americans make those contractions work. Through trail and error. Through success and failure. This nation have been through the fire again and again.

I have cousins who are in the military and my heart goes out to them when they have to go to dangerous countries like Iraq, on a lesser scale Afghanistan. Whether you agree or disagree with the fighting the nation has done [or is currently doing], you really should support those troops. The troops are doing what they signed up for - defending America when called to. America cannot be America without them.

The below is taken from a book: Race and Reunion, by David Blight. The book talks about how black Charlestonians commemorated Union soldiers buried in a local race track.

“After Charleston, South Carolina was evacuated in February 1865 near the end of the Civil War, most of the people remaining among the ruins of the city were thousands of blacks. During the final eight months of the war, Charleston had been bombarded by Union batteries and gunboats, and much of its magnificent architecture lay in ruin. Also during the final months of war the Confederates had converted the Planters’ Race Course (a horse track) into a prison in which some 257 Union soldiers had died and were thrown into a mass grave behind the grandstand.

In April, more than twenty black carpenters and laborers went to the gravesite, reinterred the bodies in proper graves, built a tall fence around the cemetery enclosure one hundred yards long, and built an archway over an entrance. On the archway they inscribed the words, “Martyrs of the Race Course.” And with great organization, on May 1, 1865, the black folk of Charleston, in cooperation with white missionaries, teachers, and Union troops, conducted an extraordinary parade of approximately ten thousand people. It began with three thousand black school children (now enrolled in freedmen’s schools) marching around the Planters’ Race Course with armloads of roses and singing “John Brown’s Body.” Then followed the black women of Charleston, and then the men. They were in turn followed by members of Union regiments and various white abolitionists such as James Redpath. The crowd gathered in the graveyard; five black preachers read from Scripture, and a black children’s choir sang “America,” “We Rally Around the Flag,” the “Star-spangled Banner,” and several spirituals. Then the solemn occasion broke up into an afternoon of speeches, picnics, and drilling troops on the infield of the old planters’ horseracing track.

This was the first Memorial Day. Black Charlestonians had given birth to an American tradition. By their labor, their words, their songs, and their solemn parade of roses and lilacs and marching feet on their former masters’ race course, they had created the Independence Day of the Second American Revolution.

To this day hardly anyone in Charleston, or elsewhere, even remembers this story. Quite remarkably, it all but vanished from memory. But in spite of all the other towns in America that claim to be the site of the first Memorial Day (all claiming spring, 1866), African Americans and Charleston deserve pride of place. Why not imagine a new rebirth of the American nation with this scene?”

If you are ninterested in reading more or finding out more about David Blight’s Race and Reunion, check out his on-line journal Common-place.

Also, if you are interested in reading more about other views of Memorial Day Weekend, check out this site. The creator is a Civil War Historian and a high school history teacher.

As usual, I love to hear your comments and rants. Cheers!