![]() The ceremony that took place in Arlington National Cemetery on that day is frequently regarded as the first official Memorial Day celebration. Race and Reunion Chapters 4-8 Summary & Analysis Chapter 4 Summary: Reconstruction and Reconciliation According to Blight, postwar politics and reconciliationism derailed the process of Reconstruction, sidelining radical Republicans and allowing a white supremacist insurgency to flourish in the Southern states. Logan, president of a Union Army veterans group, who in 1868 encouraged Americans to adorn the graves of the fallen with flowers on May 30. The origin story that gained widespread acceptance involves General John A. Logan and the Widespread Acceptance of Memorial Day 'Suppression of the African American Origin Story'ĭespite these documented events, the narrative of African Americans founding Memorial Day largely remained untold, with David Blight asserting that this origin story was not the version many white individuals preferred to convey. In 1865, confronted with a ravaged landscape and a torn America, the North and South began a slow and painful process of reconciliation. The gravesites transformed into a 'sea of flowers,' and the New York Tribune depicted the tribute as 'a procession of friends and mourners such as South Carolina and the United States had never witnessed before'. David Blight explores the perilous path of remembering and forgetting, and reveals its tragic costs to race relations and Americas national reunion. The event attracted an estimated 10,000 people, primarily black residents, who partook in a tribute encompassing parades, songs, sermons, and speeches by Union officers, missionaries, and black ministers. In the run-up to the event, approximately two dozen African American residents of Charleston rearranged the graves into rows and constructed a three-metre-tall white fence around them, thereby creating a memorial christened 'Martyrs of the Race Course'. At least 257 prisoners had died there, many from disease, and were interred in unmarked graves. This gathering was held at a former racecourse where Confederate captors held Union soldiers during the last year of the war. David Blight, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author of "Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory," recounts a commemoration that occurred on, in Charleston, organised by freed slaves and white missionaries. The Overlooked Narrative: African Americans' ContributionĪnother narrative, often overshadowed, suggests that the tradition was birthed by African Americans in Charleston, South Carolina a year earlier in 1865. Memorial Day, originating from the Civil War, pays tribute to fallen soldiers.(Photo by Justin Casey on Unsplash) Historically, several towns have laid claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. However, the origins of the holiday are steeped in debate and controversy. Approximately 6,20,000 soldiers succumbed during this war, and efforts to honour them began soon after their demise. Memorial Day, a day when Americans across the nation pay tribute to veterans from all wars, finds its origins in the deadliest conflict in the country's history: the Civil War.
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