Memorial Day is a federal holiday observed on the last Monday in May. The U.S. Department of Defense defines Memorial Day as “an annual day of remembrance to honor all those who died in service to the U.S. during peacetime and war.”

The origins of Memorial Day are rooted in the United States Civil War.

The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a national organization for Union Civil War Veterans. GAR Commander-in-Chief General John A. Logan issued General Order No. 11, declaring May 30, 1868, a day for “strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion.”  

At the time, the observance was known as Decoration Day.

In 1966, the federal government declared Waterloo, NY as the birthplace of Memorial Day through a Congressional Resolution under President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Waterloo resident Henry C. Welles suggested placing wreaths on fallen soldiers’ graves summer 1865. This suggestion did not result in action that year. However, the following year on May 5, 1865, the first observance occurred. Waterloo repeated this observance on May 5, 1867. In 1866, the city shifted its day to May 30 to align with General John A. Logan’s order.

Although Waterloo has the federal designation, there is debate whether it should be the official birthplace of the holiday.

Boalsburg, Pennsylvania claims it began the tradition in 1864 when three women placed flowers on fallen soldiers’ graves.

However, there is another ceremony that many people believe is not being lifted up enough in Memorial Day history conversation.

Pulitzer Prize winning historian David Blight raised awareness of a Memorial Day ceremony by formerly enslaved Black people in his book “Race and Reunion: The Civil War American Memory.”

In his book, he describes a ceremony at the Martyrs of the Race Course cemetery that took place on May 1, 1865 in Charleston, South Carolina.

Time Magazine details the event:

“…at a former planters’ racetrack where Confederates held captured Union soldiers during the last year of the war. At least 257 prisoners died, many of disease, and were buried in unmarked graves, so black residents of Charleston decided to give them a proper burial.

In the approximately 10 days leading up to the event, roughly two dozen African American Charlestonians reorganized the graves into rows and built a 10-foot-tall white fence around them. An archway overhead spelled out “Martyrs of the Race Course” in black letters.

About 10,000 people, mostly black residents, participated in the May 1 tribute, according to coverage back then in the Charleston Daily Courier and the New York Tribune.”

Additionally, “A Day for Rememberin’” by Leah Henderson is a children’s book written about the Memorial Day ceremony that took place in Charleston. This book is informative for both younger and older humans. Families can listen to the author read her book aloud on the KidLit TV YouTube channel.

For people who enjoy poetry, Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem Ode for Memorial Day is worth reading each year.

Regardless, of where the first Memorial Day ceremony took place, what is clear is that Black people, white people, and people of all races believed it was important to pause and honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, their lives.

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