Articles for tag: 54th Massachusetts, African American history, Charleston SC 1865, Civil War remembrance, Decoration Day origins, first Memorial Day, Grand Army of the Republic, Memorial Day history, Union soldiers, Washington Race Course

Memorial Day Began with People Recently Freed from Enslavement

The earliest recorded Memorial Day Ceremony was held by freed African Americans Photo: A woman visits the grave of a fallen loved one in Upstate New York on Decoration Day. (Library of Congress) Immediately after the end of the Civil War, people recently freed from enslavement in Charleston, SC, honored fallen Union soldiers, marking the ...