On May 1, 1865, thousands of newly freed Black people gathered in Charleston, S.C., for what may have been the nation’s first Memorial Day celebration. Attendees held a parade and put flowers on the graves of Union soldiers who had helped liberate them from slavery.
Democracy Dies in Darkness
Black people may have started Memorial Day. Whites erased it from history.
By Donald Beaulieu
May 29, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT