The Origins of Memorial Day: Know Your History

Earlier today, I noticed several people sharing the following story:

KNOW YOUR HISTORY: Memorial Day was started by former slaves on May, 1, 1865 in Charleston, SC to honor 257 dead Union Soldiers who had been buried in a mass grave in a Confederate prison camp. They dug up the bodies and worked for 2 weeks to give them a proper burial as gratitude for fighting for their freedom. They then held a parade of 10,000 people led by 2,800 Black children where they marched, sang and celebrated.

I never heard of this before and since most of our history was hidden, I wanted to know if this was true. So, I contacted one of the smartest people I know that happens to work in the history department of a Wisconsin University. Thankfully, she was able to steer me in the right direction.

After some research I discovered that in May 1865, free blacks in Charleston reburied dead Union prisoners of war and held a cemetery dedication ceremony but it is undetermined that this event is the origin of Memorial Day. The custom of holding observances (including the laying of flowers on burial sites) to remember and honor those who gave their lives in military service goes back many hundreds, if not thousands, of years. In the United States, that custom has long since been formalized in the creation of Memorial Day (formerly known as Decoration Day), a federal holiday observed on the last Monday in May to remember the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. Traditionally, every year the President of the United States (or, in his absence, another high-ranking government official) visits Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day to honor all those Americans who have died in military service to their country by participating in a symbolic wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

In a formal sense, the modern Memorial Day originated with an order issued in 1868 by Maj. Gen.John A. Logan, the commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, for the annual decoration of war graves:

Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) — established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.

The first large observance was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The ceremonies centered around the mourning-draped veranda of the Arlington mansion, once the home of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Various Washington officials, including Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant, presided over the ceremonies. After speeches, children from the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphan Home and members of the GAR made their way through the cemetery, strewing flowers on both Union and Confederate graves, reciting prayers and singing hymns.

Regardless of when Decoration Day (or Memorial Day) may have been officially established, though, debate continues to this day regarding exactly when and where the first observance of this nature was held in the United States. In May 1966 the city of Waterloo, New York, was designated as the "Birthplace of Memorial Day" via a Congressional resolutions and presidential proclamation commemorating a patriotic observance held in that town one hundred years earlier:

The story of Memorial Day begins in the summer of 1865, when a prominent local druggist, Henry C. Welles, mentioned to some of his friends at a social gathering that while praising the living veterans of the Civil War it would be well to remember the patriotic dead by placing flowers on their graves. Nothing resulted from this suggestion until he advanced the idea again the following spring to General John B. Murray. Murray, a civil war hero and intensely patriotic, supported the idea wholeheartedly and marshalled veterans' support. Plans were developed for a more complete celebration by a local citizens' committee headed by Welles and Murray.

On May 5, 1866, the Village was decorated with flags at half mast, draped with evergreens and mourning black. Veterans, civic societies and residents, led by General Murray, marched to the strains of martial music to the three village cemeteries. There impressive ceremonies were held and soldiers' graves decorated. One year later, on May 5, 1867, the ceremonies were repeated. In 1868, Waterloo joined with other communities in holding their observance on May 30th, in accordance with General Logan's orders. It has been held annually ever since.

The "First Decoration Day," as this event came to be recognized in some circles in the North, involved an estimated ten thousand people, most of them black former slaves. During April, twenty-eight black men from one of the local churches built a suitable enclosure for the burial ground at the Race Course. In some ten days, they constructed a fence ten feet high, enclosing the burial ground, and landscaped the graves into neat rows. The wooden fence was whitewashed and an archway was built over the gate to the enclosure. On the arch, painted in black letters, the workmen inscribed "Martyrs of the Race Course."

At nine o'clock in the morning on May 1, the procession to this special cemetery began as three thousand black schoolchildren (newly enrolled in freedmen's schools) marched around the Race Course, each with an armload of roses and singing "John Brown's Body." The children were followed by three hundred black women representing the Patriotic Association, a group organized to distribute clothing and other goods among the freedpeople. The women carried baskets of flowers, wreaths, and crosses to the burial ground. The Mutual Aid Society, a benevolent association of black men, next marched in cadence around the track and into the cemetery, followed by large crowds of white and black citizens.

The official dedication ceremony was conducted by the ministers of all the black churches in Charleston. With prayer, the reading of biblical passages, and the singing of spirituals, black Charlestonians gave birth to an American tradition. In so doing, they declared the meaning of the war in the most public way possible — by their labor, their words, their songs, and their solemn parade of roses, lilacs, and marching feet on the old planters' Race Course.

After the dedication, the crowds gathered at the Race Course grandstand to hear some thirty speeches by Union officers, local black ministers, and abolitionist missionaries. Picnics ensued around the grounds, and in the afternoon, a full brigade of Union infantry, including Colored Troops, marched in double column around the martyrs' graves and held a drill on the infield of the Race Course. The war was over, and Memorial Day had been founded by African Americans in a ritual of remembrance and consecration. Although contemporaneous accounts from the Charleston Daily Courier describe and document the 1865 ceremony that took place there, and the event was one the earliest known observances similar to what we would now recognize as Memorial Day, whether it was truly the first such ceremony, and what influence it might have had on later observances, are still matters of contention. Professor Blight termed it "the first Memorial Day" because it predated most of the other contenders, but he noted he has no evidence that it led to General Logan’s call for a national holiday in 1868: "I'm much more interested in the meaning that’s being conveyed in that incredible ritual than who's first," he said. Well, I hope that clears up any questions about the Birthplace of Memorial Day. I pray that you have a safe, enjoyable celebration honoring those who died for the freedoms we enjoy today.

Justice for Freddy Gray: Remember???

Today, I watched three hours of news coverage about Baltimore. The various news outlets were very detailed when reporting about the clean up process, businesses trying to recover and reports from an unidentified prisioner that claimed Freddy Gray was trying to hurt himself while in the police van and he obviously is a credible witness with x-ray vision because he allegedly witnessed this despite being separated by a solid metal partition. Over a week ago, Freddy Gray died from a severed spinal column while in custody of the Baltimore Police Department. The day Gray was being laid to rest, residents began to lash out because of their frustration. Almost immediately, the news shifted from the death of Freddy Gray to what many news outlets referred to as riots.

I was watching the news as they reported about the riots; the social unrest of those living in Baltimore. There was no denying that some businesses were destroyed and looting was taking place but there was no backstory. In order to find out what happened prior to the social unrest, we had to look to bloggers, social activists and other non - conventional methods of obtaining information to find out what happened. While watching CNN, MSNBC and FOX, there were no reports about the black baby dolls hanging from trees, the alleged calling of black demonstrators, who peacefully gathered for six days, niggers and referring to white protesters as nigger lovers. Almost every reporter focused on getting the person they were interviewing to condemn the violence. Also, there were false reports that members of the Bloods and Crips called a truce to attack police officers.

With each report, more attention was diverted away from the death of Freddy Gray and focused on the police in riot gear, the buildings that were burned and the clean up efforts. For the past two days, all attention has been focused on the mother that attacked her son when she spotted him throwing rocks at police officers. Again, the conversation was not about Freddy Gray but had people chiming in on the mother's action, with groups debating if her actions were justified or not. All of this reporting from Baltimore focused on everything except the death of Freddy Gray. As we look at the events unfold before our eyes, we become engaged in other discussions without realizing we're being lead astray with stories of mass distraction. Once the mother retuens home from her press tour, the debris is bagged, the broken glass replaced and the fires extinguished, we realize that stores can be rebuilt, broken glass can be replaced but Freddy Gray remains in a grave and we don't have any definitive answers regarding the events that caused him to suffer a severed spinal column while in police custody. Watching the news, it seems that broken glass is more important than broken spines. While we're getting distracted, there are six police officers on paid administrative leave and we don't know there names. The question that's still on my mind is why does the destruction of property garner more outrage and media coverage than the destruction of a h6man life?

1443: Moor(s) Than a Year to Remember

I reside in one of those Southern states that celebrate Confederate Memorial Day on the last Monday in April; evidence that racism still has deep Southern roots. Why are there celebrations honoring the Confederacy? I have some white friends tnat tried to explain that it's part of their heritage while I tried to explain to them that it represents hate. Needless to say, we never could agree that the Confederacy represents a heritage of hate. I guess I will never understand why it's embraced but I know what it represents. Does Germany have a Nazi Remembrance Day on their calendar? I seriously doubt it. Only in America will certain state be allowed to honor terrorists. Since I can't change the fact that this day is considered a holiday in my state, I can use this day to provide some insight on the evolution of the Uppity Negro.

It is ironic that what started as a religious Crusade ended up in the enslavement of a continent. The cruel and inhuman Atlantic slave trade was a culmination of religious, political and social developments in Western Europe and North Africa. The literature on this subject is vast and has been extensively analyzed both from European and African perspectives. Here we look at it through the prism of Muslim history, examining how the slave trade was influenced by events in North Africa and how it influenced Muslim societies in West Africa.

It is not commonly appreciated that the first target of slavery in West Africa were the Moors (the Portuguese and the Spanish referred to all Muslims regardless of racial differences as Moors). A description of the first raids has come down to us through the writings of the Portuguese writer Azurara. In 1443, an expedition was financed and organized explicitly to capture more Muslims. The Maghrib was in an advanced state of political disintegration and the presence of these predatory ships was hardly noticed in the palaces of the Emirs, busy plotting against each other. In 1443, the Moors fought for their freedom so the could return to their homes. Essentially, this was the year the Uppity Negro was born.

Not to be associated with the stereotypical “FOR SALE” Uppity Negro a.k.a. “bourgeois” or the punk*** social brokers a.k.a. “political pimps”. The Uppity Negro is A FEARLESS black person who by social definition is “not in their place”. UNAPOLOGETIC. VAINGLORIOUS. MULTIFARIOUS. JUST. AUDACIOUS. A black person who knows his or her American legacy, his or her actualized social status, and his or her social and emotional plights with still the identical high regard to self as an equally entitled American due the same privileges, attitudes, concessions, and respectability of THE ENTITLED. Conscious of his or her impressive yet awkward esteemed existence throughout the evolution of America’s prescription to annihilate, denigrate, ignore, placate, satirize, extort, ostracize, and water-down the institution of the Uppity Negro; immune to The Entitled’s reverse psychological guilt of the legacy. Conscious of the debt owed by the country to the legacy. Equally conscious of the debt owed by blacks to blacks. APPRECIATIVE of the expensive price paid by ancestral Uppity Negroes for the presumed entitlement claimed. ADAMANT. Never whining, never begging. DEMANDING. NEVER ASHAMED. COCKY (rightfully). COMMITTED with imperial passion to define “their place” as equal (if not BETTER.)

People admit and defend a meaning that was created to destabilize them for nearly 600 years (ago) and counting rather that destabilize the perpetuated meaning. It didn’t mean a bourgeois slave in 1442/1443. It meant a resister to the system in 1442/1443 when the first slaves were taken to Portugal and fought to get back home. It always meant the adage, “You think you are too good”. During slavery it meant the question in intimidation, (Oh, you think) "You’re too good to pick that cotton?" During Reconstruction it meant, “Oh, you’re too good to buy from me or work for me?” So they, racist, jealous Whites burned our businesses, burned our communities, hung our men, and we defeated and scared again by this new thing, Jim Crow, went to work for them again. We started to buy from them only and teach each other we were worthless and needed them to survive. For decades during Jim Crow it meant, “Oh, you’re too good to walk through the back door” or “You’re too good to give me your land?” Then we found our fathers or grandfathers hanging from a tree. Our people with dignity were called UPPITY. Then one time, they taunted and terrorized with words, “you’re too good to sit in the back of the bus?” to a nice little fed-up lady. She in turn got UPPITY, talked back, and remained seated.

Being an Uppity Negro does not mean bourgeois. It does not mean a person who has left the community behind or has forgotten where they came from. It has never meant that. Black people picked up those ideas in slavery because they were actually jealous of the UPPITY NEGRO slave/captive that had the courage to fight back or run away. Courage was a characteristic to covet and at the same time be afraid of because it was treason to bestow it on the plantation. Courage is still a very dangerous characteristic to bestow in seeking liberation on our modern day plantations (our communities, our churches, our jobs, our families). That is why we “whisper” about injustice instead of speak out. Uppity Negroes didn’t whisper on the plantation. They walked tall.

I've never been one to "know my place." I can't recall a time in my life where I fit in; maybe it was the blood of the Moors pulsating through my veins, crying out for change. I've always used my God given talents in an attempt to help others. In the vein of DuBois, I humbly embrace the recognition as one of the "talented tenth" in an effort to obtain enough status to effectively bring about change. As I embrace this new challenge, it is my desire to use my gift and other redeemable smattering of talents that I have been blessed with to be able to make uncomfortable those things that need to be unsettled, provide a salve to those things that need to be saved and to unashamedly embrace my hertiage. I hope you join me on this continuing journey of discovery. Peace and Blessings!

Sticks and Stones

I received a notice from Google that this blog was going to be closed due to inactivity. I read the first and only post and I remembered why/when I created The Uppity Negro blog. At the time, I wanted to address the killing of Trayvonne Martin without inaudating the Lumberton Informer with posts that didn't directly affect my homtown. As I emotions of the tragic death of Martin filled my mind, I became a little emotional because never in a million years would I have imagined it would be open season on black males and the primary hunter would be police officers. It's been two years since I posted on this blog and I find it kismet that I post on the anniversary of the murder of Mack Charles Parker. Parker was a distant relative that lived in Lumberton but was lynched in the city of Poplarville, Mississippi after he was accused of raping a white woman. Parker was a 23 year old truck drive that was lynched on April 25, 1959 by 10 white men that were never indicted. We see all the advancements and think we've come a mighty long way but when the news is constantly reporting the modern day lynchings of black males like Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Freddy Gray and countless others, I realize we have a long way to go. It takes more than the election of the first African American president to classisfy America as post-racial.

Before going any further, I want to make it clear that I'm still blogging as the Lumberton Informer but I'm currently involved in a legal battle and in order to read the Lumberton Informer the reader must register their email address. Also, if you're interested in knowing more about Mack Charles Parker, you can check out the book Blood Juztice: The Lynching of Mack Charles Parker. It's a very interesting read. Now, let me address the title of this blog. The matter is actually addressed in tbe previous post but as a blogger of color, I get criticism from black and white people. A lot of white people are quick to try and label me as a racist because I'm unapologetically outspoken whereas a lot of black people like to label me as a sellout because I support police and vehemently oppose the hood mantra of no snitching. Let's be clear, I I witness a crime, I'm calling the police. It's time out for putting on blinders when it comes to protecting criminals. I will expose injustice in all forms. You can be wearing a hoodie or a badge. If you're breaking the law, you're not welcomed in my circle. I'm a lover of social media as well as social activism. One phrase I see a lot on social mefia is "if it's not directed, it's not respected." Most people that "know" me know I'm wired differently. I don't buy into internet thuggery. Here's my take on the phrase, I don't need your respect as long as I have your attention.

When a person decides to blog about social and/or political issues they must be prepared for attacks. I can deal with name calling even when they're made by the anonymous cowards. However, if you feel the need to resort to damaging my personal property and making threats, you've crossed the line of being a coward to being a cowardly criminal. I can deal with name calling. I think Dan Savage said it best in his open letter to Herman Cain.

"The strange irony of my life is that I've been called a faggot by niggers and been called a nigger by faggots. We need to see that we are all in the same boat, and while we stand around arguing about who is worthy, someone who considers us all to be worthless laughs all the way to the bank. Meanwhile, we step on each other, trying to gain a bit of extra footing of "success" while crushing another's soul."

Words are stones. Words have meaning. Words have life. Slurs are attacks and are tantamount to an attack, character assignation and in my opinion, slurs are the verbal equilivant to being spat on. As you can see, this blog is going to be slightly different, offering me a forum to discuss race relations in America, the recent diatribe Michael Eric Dyson wrote about Cornel West, the Spice epidemic and the New Jim Crow. I can't describe all the issues that will be discussed in this blog but I hope you join me on this journey of self-discovery.

There's A New Blog In Town

There are a lot of things going on and I need to put me dos centavos (my two cents) in. We all have an opinion and for those of you that followed my blog, Lumberton Informer, know I have no problem letting you know what’s on my mind. As a result of my blog, I have experienced a lot of racism as well as placism. The racism came mostly from white readers who did not like the fact that I would call a thing a thing. I was never one to back down from an argument and I think humans were given a vocabulary/voice for a reason. I am one that realizes that we can agree to disagree. But I’m not one that feels that if we don’t agree on a subject, we cannot co-exist. We’re all different for a reason. Variety is the spice of life. I dealt with a lot of placism within the black community; those that felt I should know my place and not speak on certain things. I guess I released too much kitchen conversation into the blogger sphere. Since I was always told that I think I’m all that, and I must agree, I am all that and a bag of chips, thank you for noticing, I decided to call my new blog, The Uppity Negro. I think I have been called a few derivations of that title, so I have decided to embrace it for the new blog. For those of you that are confused about the meaning of this title, I would like to share with you its meaning to me. According to the Urban Dictionary, an uppity Negro is a fearless black person who by social definition is “not in their place; a black person who is committed to reversing the crimes of self refusal, self-denial and self-hatred that are endemic to the Black community and detrimental to the Black psyche. As an Uppity Negro, I am unapologetic, vainglorious, multifarious and just audacious. So, if you a still confused about the content of this blog, please refer back to the definition. I have a lot to say about the Trayvon Martin case, the Justice Walk and the lack of voter participation within our communities. So, if you’re easily offended, you may not want to read this blog. So tell your friends about the Uppity Negro because this blog is going to go in; on a lot of subjects. There are a lot of things going on in the world in which we live and if you’re not upset; then you’re not paying attention. In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “we are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”