#Freed slaves observed the country’s first Memorial Day

[reasoningdaily]

The holiday, first called Decoration Day, started after the Civil War in America, and was observed to honor the memory of the Union and Confederate soldiers who had died during the conflict. It wasn’t until the 20th century that Memorial Day observances were extended to honor all service members serving in all wars.

History books have always said the first observances of Decoration Day started during and after the Civil War. And a number of cities lay claim to having the first observance, from Warrenton, Virginia, on June 3, 1861, when a wreath was laid at a Civil War soldier’s grave, to a well documented story of the ladies of Savannah, Georgia putting flowers on Confederate grave in 1862.

John A. Logan and family (l-r: wife Mary Simmerson Cunningham Logan, son Manning Alexander Logan, Logan, daughter Mary Elizabeth Logan AKA “Dollie”), circa 1870.

Brady-Handy Photograph Collection (Library of Congress)

Interestingly, almost all our history texts credit the founding of Memorial Day to one man, a white former Union Army Major General, John A. Logan, who in 1868 called for a Decoration Day to be observed annually and nationwide.

The Decoration Day history forgot – “The Martyrs of the Racecourse” The wars we have today seem very far away, always in someone else’s country. We are not aware of the scale of death and destruction that war brings in its wake. For us, war is a video on the television screen. But in Charleston, South Carolina in April of 1865, the ruins of the long conflict were evident everywhere.

The port city of Charleston is where the Civil War started in April, 1861, but by the spring of 1865, the city was nearly deserted of its white population. The first Union troops to enter the city and march up Meeting Street were the Twenty-First U. S. Colored Infantry, and it was their commander who accepted the formal surrender of Charleston that day.

Meeting street and Queen, at the end of the Civil War. This is the very street in Charleston, the Twenty First U.S. Colored Infantry came marching down in the spring of 1865.

George N. Barnard (1819 – 1902)

While the city may have been deserted by most of the white folks, there were over 10,000 freed slaves who gathered to greet the Union Army. The story goes that these freedmen and women dug up a mass grave containing the bodies of 257 dead Union soldiers, only to rebury them on May 1, 1865 in a cleaned up and landscaped burial ground.

They built an archway with a placard that said “Martyrs of the Race-Course,” and buried the bodies with a ritualized remembrance celebration, attended by thousands of people, white and black. The ceremony was covered by the New York Tribune and other national newspapers of that day.

Who were these freed slaves of Charleston, S.C.? Who were these freed slaves? Why would they take the trouble to honor a bunch of white soldiers? Let’s go back to the early colonial period in Charleston, when fully one-quarter of the all the slaves brought into this country came through the city. As the official end to the slave trade was coming on, more than 90,000 slaves were brought into Charleston between 1801 and the official end of the American slave trade in 1808.

For those people who have visited Charleston and Myrtle Beach, you will know something of the Low Country, its cuisine and the dialect spoken by many of the residents. In colonial times, the area of South Carolina along the coast, including the Sea Islands was known for its rice and indigo production, as well as its Sea Island cotton.

The Low Country was all the land from the fall line to the sea shore, a region of marshes, with cypress trees draped in moss, stagnant water full of mosquitoes and other diseases. Today, visitors can look in on restored plantations with wooden walkways that take in the swamps and you might even see a few alligators.

African slaves unloading rice barges at a South Carolinian rice plantation. (J. G. Holland Scribner’s Monthly, An Illustrated Magazine for the People (New York, NY: Scribner & Co., 1874)

Clipart courtesy FCIT

But in colonial times and on up to the start of the Civil War, Low Country crops were tended by African slaves, and not just any African slave would do. They were the Gullah people from the rice-growing regions of West Africa and the Congo-Angola region of Central Africa. Plantation owners prized these slaves because of their knowledge in rice-growing, a very lucrative crop that made millions of dollars for the white owners.

The Gullah people remained at the plantations during the hot and humid summer rice-growing months when white owners took their families inland to cooler areas to avoid malaria, yellow fever, and cholera, so rampant at that time of year. A few white overseers and a few trusted black men were left in charge. Because of the isolation of the huge plantations, the Gullah developed their own language, a unique blend of African and English, as well as a religion that also blended African ritual with Christian beliefs.

Screen shot of cemetery at race track constructed by freed slaves of Charleston. Circa 1865.

Dan Welch, Education Programs Coordinator for the Gettysburg Foundation, delivers his winter lecture, “Martyrs of the Race Course – The Forgotten Decoration Day.”

Gettysburg NPS

But that was not all the Gullah people gave to this fledgling country. Besides a unique cultural tradition, they also created their own Low Country cuisine that visitors discover and come to love today. But more importantly, their culture, rituals and traditions, especially the way they honored their ancestors and those who had died in battle were passed on to the next generations.

The first Decoration Day arrives It was the Gullah people that showed the most resistance to being enslaved, and who most enthusiastically embraced freedom when it was given to them. David W. Blight is a professor of American history at Yale University. He described the race track where the burial and honoring of the Union soldiers took place in 1865.

He tells the story like this; during the final year of the Civil War, the Confederates had converted the planters’ horse track, the Washington Race Course and Jockey Club, into an outdoor prison. Like Andersonville, the conditions at the prison were horrific, and about 257 Union prisoners died of disease and exposure. The bodies were thrown in a mass grave behind the grandstand.

The grandstand for the Washington Race Track were designed by Charles F. Reichardt in the 1830s. Union soldiers who died in the prison camp were thrown into a mass grave behind the grandstand.

Library of Congress

At the end of the war, some 28 black workmen went to the site of the mass grave, dug up the bodies, reburying the dead properly. A high whitewashed fence was built around the cemetery, and the archway was constructed over the entrance with the words “Martyrs of the Race Course.”

Here is what Professor Blight says happened on May 1, 1865: Then, black Charlestonians in cooperation with white missionaries and teachers, staged an unforgettable parade of 10,000 people on the slaveholders’ race course. The symbolic power of the low-country planter aristocracy’s horse track (where they had displayed their wealth, leisure, and influence) was not lost on the freedpeople. A New York Tribune correspondent witnessed the event, describing “a procession of friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States never saw before.”

For over 50 some odd years, white Charlestonians tried to suppress the memory of that first Decoration Day, but the memory has been rediscovered and has a certain amount of profound meaning, if not the fact that it has been brought back into its historical context. The race track is still there, although in the 1880s the Union soldier’s bodies were moved to Beaufort National Cemetery, and remain there today.

A few years ago, the city of Charleston and the state government authorized plans for a historical marker in Hampton Park to honor the first Dedication Day. Harlan Greene, director of archival and reference services at Avery, said the time is right; “Charleston has begun to recognize its African-American history.”

“We’re approaching a tipping point,” Greene said. “The irony of the story is that Charleston is the cradle of the Confederacy, but the memorial was for Union soldiers. It shows the richness of Charleston history.”

[texasobserver]

“The Long Road to a Juneteenth Museum” by James Rusell, from the January/February 2024 issue of Texas Observer Magazine:

(Museum renderings courtesy BIG)

When Fort Worth activist Opal Lee was invited in 2021 to stand alongside President Joe Biden as he signed the bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday, “I could’ve done a holy dance,” the 97-year-old told the Texas Observer recently. “But the kids said they didn’t want me twerking.”

Dancing—and twerking—aside, Lee is clearly used to ambitious projects. She’s often referred to as the grandmother of Juneteenth, mostly because of her 1,400-mile walk, Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., September 2016 to January 2017, seeking recognition for the day that has come to represent freedom for American Blacks. Although the Emancipation Proclamation took effect in 1863, slaves couldn’t be freed where the countryside was still under Confederate control. That ended in Texas on June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston and brought the news.

The latest project of Lee and her allies, to create a museum in Fort Worth honoring Juneteenth, is turning out to be equally ambitious. What began as a modest collection in a small house in the neighborhood where Lee grew up has become a key part of an effort to revitalize Fort Worth’s Historic Southside neighborhood. The most recent and much grander incarnation of the museum is due to open in 2025.

Along the way, the honors paid to Lee—a Nobel Peace Prize nomination, a painting of Lee for the National Portrait Gallery, and the Emmy Award-winning documentary Opal’s Walk for Freedom (2022)—have helped bring attention to that neighborhood, just as they did to the Juneteenth campaign. But tragedy and poverty have held hands there for a long time, and revitalization efforts sometimes find tough sledding.

Lee’s roots run deep into the soil of the Southside and into personal memories of another June 19. On that day in 1939, a mob of racists—about 500 people, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram—raided the house there that Lee, her parents, and two brothers, had recently moved into. The family promptly moved out.

A portrait of Opal Lee from the National Portrait Gallery (Courtesy of Talley Dunn Gallery)

The raid was traumatic. Lee told the Star-Telegram in 2003 that afterward her family was “homeless and then living in houses so ramshackle they were impossible to keep clean.” The experience led her to become first an advocate for affordable housing and later an activist regarding homelessness, hunger, and Juneteenth. 

Eighty years after the raid, another violent incident a few blocks away would inspire a new generation of Southside activists.

Lee, a retired elementary school teacher and counselor in the Fort Worth school district, also spearheaded the rebuilding of the Metroplex Food Bank (now the Community Food Bank), founded the urban Opal’s Farm, and served on numerous local boards, including the Tarrant Black Historical and Genealogical Society.

Through all that time, she worked to draw attention to Juneteenth. “She was always teaching about Juneteenth” in middle school, said Sedrick Huckaby, the Fort Worth artist who painted Lee for the National Portrait Gallery. “She was always teaching about our heritage and about taking pride in who you are.” Allies like the late Rev. Dr. Ron Myers, a Mississippi doctor and minister, lobbied legislatures across the country and in 1997 helped pass a congressional joint resolution recognizing the holiday. Lee worked on building local support.

In 2014, on the 150th anniversary of Juneteenth, she asked friends and family to donate to a celebration of that, in lieu of buying presents on her birthday. A story in Fort Worth Weekly called her “part grandma, part General Patton” in leading the effort. Two years later, she was putting on her walking shoes for her own personal march on Washington. “If a lady in tennis shoes walked to Washington, D.C, maybe people would pay attention,” she said in her deep, raspy voice, recalling her motivations for the trek. It took another four years after her walk, but the national holiday happened.

Juneteenth has been celebrated by Black Americans for more than 100 years, including in Fort Worth. Texas was the first to designate it a state holiday, in 1980. Since 2020, 26 states, propelled by the murders of Black citizens George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police, have followed Texas’ lead, according to the Pew Research Center. 

In Fort Worth, Lee and volunteer Don Williams had been working for years to gather artifacts related to local Black history and Juneteenth, including paintings by local Black artist Manet Harrison Fowler, scrapbooks chronicling local Juneteenth celebrations, and memorabilia from the locally filmed movie Miss Juneteenth. Lee inherited a house from her late husband Dale, a retired school district principal, and turned it into the first version of the Juneteenth museum. It housed the growing collection and hosted multiple Juneteenth events and, at one point, computer classes.

While the collection grew, the building, run by volunteers, was deteriorating. Like most public places, it closed in 2020 as COVID-19 spread. After the pandemic, it did not reopen, and the collection was moved out. Then early on the morning of January 11, 2023, it caught on fire. The remains were demolished to make way for the new museum. 

Around 2019, Lee, granddaughter Dione Sims, and former Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce executive Jarred Howard had started talking about the possibility of a new Juneteenth Museum. They began buying land around the site of the old house. Howard long had a vision to help his old stomping grounds and wanted to both commemorate the holiday and spur economic development. Well acquainted with developers and architects from his Chamber days, he solicited requests for proposals for a building that could meet those goals. First, local architect Paul Dennehy designed a five-story building with a gallery, event space, and residences. In early 2020 it was pitched to neighborhood association leaders. Too tall, they said, and out of step with the neighborhood. In 2021, local architects Bennett Partners produced a plan for a playful mixed-use campus, estimated to cost about $30 million to build. 

In 2022, a new plan, bigger in scope than Lee could have imagined two decades ago, was unveiled. The current proposal is for a 5-acre complex housing a National Juneteenth Museum, with a theater, restaurant, art galleries, and a “business incubator” space to spur Southside entrepreneurship, designed by the internationally renowned architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). The price tag is an estimated $70 million. So far, the nonprofit National Juneteenth Museum, formed in 2020, has raised about $30 million of that, mostly from major donors and foundations, Lee said.

Douglass Alligood, a partner at BIG and the chief architect of the currently planned museum, got an earful during his field work on the project, including from Lee’s friends and supporters. In multiple visits, he met with Lee as well as neighborhood leaders. The conclusion:  The museum had to represent the community and not be divorced from it.

“We were inspired by the neighborhood typology—the homes that feature historic gabled silhouettes and protruding porches, also known in context as a ‘shotgun’ house,” he said. “Neighborhood groups and community members found that, together, the BIG and KAI Enterprises [the local architecture firm] design teams demonstrate a deep understanding of the Juneteenth story and commitment to work with the local community to celebrate the holiday’s history and local culture of the Historic Southside.” 

Eleven rectangular glass-clad building segments, with peaks and valleys of varying heights, will create a star-shaped courtyard in the middle. “The ‘new star,’ the nova star represents a new chapter for the African-Americans looking ahead towards a more just future,” Alligood said.

Fine, locals said, but what people there really need is a grocery store.

It was a cold morning in early October, and Patrice Jones needed help unloading herbs. She was in the courtyard of Connex, a new three-story business and retail complex about two blocks from the planned site of the museum. Jones and a group of volunteers, mostly in their 20s and 30s, from Southside Community Gardens, are planting their 79th and 80th backyard vegetable gardens in the neighborhood, she said proudly. It’s pick-up day for those who’ve already established gardens.

The initiative is part of the larger By Any Means 104 effort, named for the 76104 zip code, and co-founded by Jones in 2020. The group’s focus on local issues includes addressing the lack of fresh food in the area instead of waiting for a grocery store. Jones, a feisty advocate and former claims adjuster, has run it full time since 2021. If the city can’t get them a grocery store, she said, they’ll teach residents to grow their own food.

The Juneteenth Museum is important, Jones said, between handing out herbs and greeting volunteers. But in her circles, she said, people also ask, “Can we get a health clinic? Can we get a pharmacy?” And of course, “Can we get a grocery store?”

According to a 2018 University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center report, the 76104 zip code has the lowest life expectancy rate in Texas and a high maternal mortality rate. It’s also a victim of what Jones calls “food apartheid,” a term she prefers to “food desert,” an indicator of an area with little access to fresh foods. Desert implies it’s natural; apartheid, she said, is an intentional act. She blames city government and its white-dominated culture.

But hunger is not a sufficient reason for a grocery chain to decide where to open a store, even if it could be part of a historical complex.

Grocery store owners “use different metrics,” including population density, said Stacy Marshall, president of Southeast Fort Worth, Inc., an economic development group. “We can’t yet make a compelling case.” The area needs more housing, he said. “Build density—rooftops—and grocery stores come.”

Marshall is a force in bringing new development to the southeast part of the city, a large historically and ethnically diverse area that includes the Historic Southside.

 Since he took the job a decade ago, “development has gone gangbusters,” he said. But development has also brought gentrification: “It’s so expensive to purchase dirt here and get a single-family home,” he said. One Dallas real estate firm put together a $70 million deal for a mixed-use development in the area, but it has stalled.

The Juneteenth museum site is within the Evans-Rosedale urban village, a city designation focused on bringing investment to the area. It’s seeing an uptick in interest from developers, but nowhere near what’s been promised by local officials.

“There have been attempts in the past. There’s the Evans Avenue Plaza, but most people don’t know about it,” said Bob Ray Sanders, communications director for the Fort Worth Black Chamber of Commerce. The plaza, also part of the Evans-Rosedale village, is meant to be a community gathering space and includes a new library. About a mile away is the Hazel Harvey Peace Center for Neighborhoods, which houses numerous city offices.

Many of the neighborhood’s nagging problems date to the mid-20th century, when integration meant, ironically, the loss of many black-owned businesses, while highway construction—as it did in many American cities—cut off Fort Worth’s Black community from downtown and wealthier neighborhoods. “By doing that, people on the Westside [turned] a blind eye to people on the Eastside,” Sanders said.

Housing construction seems to be picking up, mostly on an infill basis. But while developers are buying homes, Marshall said, they are mostly sitting on them and waiting until they can get higher prices.

Longtime assistant city manager Fernando Costa said development work in historic urban districts presents more challenges than creating new neighborhoods from pastureland. Beyond the physical complications of older infrastructure, historic preservation concerns and, often, environmental problems left over from earlier development, Costa said, such projects “require getting existing neighborhood involvement.”  

There’s also the issue of crime. According to the Fort Worth Police Department, nearly 560 crimes were reported in the 76104 zip code between mid-May and late November 2023. Assault, larceny, drug and alcohol violations, and vehicle break-ins made up more than three-quarters of the reports. That’s compared to 165 in the same time period in the mostly-white, wealthy 76109 zip code in West Fort Worth.

In the early morning of October 12, 2019, white police officer Aaron Dean, responding to a welfare check at the house, killed 28-year Black woman Atatiana Jefferson, who was playing video games with her nephew. Dean was later found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Jefferson’s murder lit a fire under a younger generation of activists who aren’t waiting for change, such as Jones, who also worked to get police accountability in response to the murder, and Angela Mack, whose doctoral thesis is about Jefferson and the neighborhood.

“I’m a good, ol’ fashioned Funkytown Black nerd,” said Mack, an instructor in the comparative race and ethnic studies department at Texas Christian University, where she received her doctorate in English rhetoric.

After Jefferson’s murder, Mack changed her thesis topic to address that tragedy. She saw that, between her mother and the national media, two different stories were being told.

“When we’re thinking about the Southside, we think about Fairmount and the Medical District in terms of revitalization. But when you cross the highway, you’re in an area with crime and poverty,” she said, drinking a latte at Black Coffee, one of the few coffee shops in the area. “When people [look] at the community, people are looking at what’s not here. It’s a deficit model of communication instead of seeing the good that’s here.                                                                

“I’m not anti-development,” she said, but economic development shouldn’t be the museum’s purpose.

“When you’re building something, it should not be [a question of] how many people we employ, but how does it help define the Southside? The development will come. I’m concerned about who controls the narrative,” she said. “The main focus should be how does this speak about our history and heritage.”

Jones also worries that history will be lost. She’s afraid that rising property values will push out poor people.

Sims has heard those concerns before. Property taxes go up with any new development, she said. And everyone’s going to complain, even if they want change.

When the museum opens in 2025, Lee just wants to make sure she’s there to see it.

“I’m looking forward to it,” she said. She’d be 99. “I hope I’m still here.”

[dazfashionz]

Brazil 🇧🇷

Tradition

Carnaval is a wild celebration of food, alcohol, music and fun. It's held annually for a few days before the start of Lent, the 40-day period of fasting, abstinence and repentance that's observed by the Roman Catholic Church before Easter. The word carnival comes from the Latin carne vale, or "farewell to the flesh"

The Portuguese brought the practice of Carnival to Brazil around 1850, patterning it mainly on the Parisian tradition of holding masquerade parties and balls at this time of the year. However, the Brazilians morphed it into a version uniquely their own over time, adding in elements from the people's African and indigenous cultural backgrounds.

Thus, Carnival in Brazil eventually incorporated lots of parades, elaborate costumes, music, dancing and balls. A tradition also developed where people dress up in opposing roles: men dress as women, aristocrats dress as commoners, the poor dress as the rich.

Carnival is held all over the country; celebrations differ a bit by region, but Rio de Janeiro's celebration is the most popular, drawing crowds of 500,000 foreigners annually from across the globe.

While all Brazilians love Carnival, the black communities are its most avid participants. This likely stems from the community's historical love of Carnival, as African slaves were freed annually for the festival's duration.

Traditional outfits

People wear the same types of clothes in many places of the world. Jeans and T-shirts are worn in most countries, replacing traditional garments. But for special occasions or celebrations, some people choose to bring back the memories of the past by wearing a traditional costume. While they don't wear it every day, Brazilians care about their traditional clothing and wear it for different occasions, such as carnivals or national celebrations.

In general, Brazilians wear clothing that's comfortable yet richly colored and sophisticated. However, there are some preferred clothing types depending on region.

For example, those living in the southern plains, a ranching area, wear gaucho-type clothing: baggy pants, or bombachas; cowboy hats and cowboy boots.

People in the country's northeastern Bahia region, which is heavily influenced by African culture, don long skirts, head scarves and shawls. Items adorned with bordado richelieu -- a type of lace developed in 18th-century France to mimic white Venetian lace, which was brought to Brazil by the Portuguese -- are also popular

Another way to consider Brazilian clothing is country attire versus city attire. Those who live in the country tend to wear shirts, jeans or dresses crafted from an inexpensive cotton material. Women who reside in the city often like to wear short skirts and dresses, and both sexes of city slickers enjoy that most typical of Western attire: T-shirts and jeans.

Statue of Christ the Redeemer.

Towering 2,310 feet above the city of Rio, the Christ the Redeemer statue has fascinated experts and historians for nearly a hundred years.

This landmark is must-see in any visit or free tour around Rio, and for good reasons! It’s the fourth largest statue of Jesus Christ in the world, the largest Art Deco-style sculpture on the planet, and to top it all off, in 2007 the statue was deemed as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World along with Machu Picchu, the Great Wall of China and the Roman Colosseum.

Perched on the summit of Mount Corcovado in Rio, the statue stands at a whopping 98 feet (or 30 metres) tall (making it two-thirds the height of New York’s Statue of Liberty), and its outstretched arms reach to 92 feet (or 28 metres) horizontally.

The idea of designing a massive statue of Jesus Christ in Rio first came about way back in the 1850s, when a local priest came up with the idea of placing a Christian monument on top of Mount Corcovado. Apparently he had requested Princess Isabel (the daughter of Emperor Pedro II and Princess Regent of Brazil at the time), to fund the project, but the idea was scrapped after a Declaration of the Republic was declared in Brazil in 1889 – a pinnacle move as it separated the church from the state in the country.

Traditional food

Feijoada.- Brazilian Feijoada is a black bean and pork stew that Brazilians often serve topped with farofa, toasted cassava flour. Many call this comfort food the national dish of Brazil.

Feijoada, a popular Brazilian dish, owes its name to its main ingredient, black beans (feijão). It is a rich stew traditionally made from different parts of the pig, such as feet, ears, and bacon, as well as other smoked meats.

Farofa.- farofa is particularly popular, typical recipes call for raw cassava flour to be toasted with abundant butter, vegetable oil or olive oil, salt, bacon, onions, garlic, sausage, or olives until golden brown.

Farofa is served alongside the main course and can either be sprinkled on by individual diners to their taste before eating, or eaten as an accompaniment in its own right, as rice is often consumed

Moqueca de Camarão.- Brazilian prawn coconut stew (moqueca de camarao) is an easy and delicious low-carb recipe that features a unique combination of spices.

As with many recipes of this kind, you'll find lots of variations for moqueca de camarao, but all of them are loaded with prawns, tomatoes, chillies, garlic, coconut milk, and lime juice.

Vatapá- Brazilian dish made from bread, shrimp, coconut milk, finely ground peanuts and palm oil mashed into a creamy paste. It is a typical food of Salvador, Bahia and it is also common to the North and Northeast regions of Brazil

Acarajé-The crispy bean and onion cakes (acarajé) are stuffed with a flavourful vatapá - a popular Brazillian mix of shrimp, crab, nuts and coconut milk.

Dixon, R. (2018). What Are Some Traditional Clothes Brazilians Wear? | Synonym. [online] Synonym.com. Available at: https://classroom.synonym.com/what-are-some-traditional-clothes-brazilians-wear-12079370.html.

hazeldeclaro0305@gmail.com (2023). The Story Behind Rio’s Christ the Redeemer Statue | Strawberry Tours. [online] ONEPORT. Available at: https://strawberrytours.com/the-story-behind-rio-s-christ-the-redeemer-statue.

[96thdayofrage]

The origin of Memorial Day is hotly debated, with many cities across the country claiming to have been the birthplace of the first celebration. Those include Waterloo, New York and Carbondale, Illinois, among others.

However, in Charleston, South Carolina, it is thought that one celebration occurred prior to any other in the country. In 1865, newly-freed African Americans who were fighting in the Civil War decorated soldiers' graves in the first recorded Memorial Day celebration, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, David W. Blight.

At that point, it was called "Decoration Day."

According to Blight's 2001 book, "Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory," on May 1, 1865, more than 10,000 formerly enslaved people and white missionaries held a parade where school children, members of the Black Union battalions, and Black religious figures marched around a racetrack in Charleston. 

"There was a file labeled 'First Decoration Day' and inside on a piece of cardboard was a narrative handwritten by an old veteran, plus a date referencing an article in The New York Tribune. That narrative told the essence of the story that I ended up telling in my book, of this march on the race track in 1865," Blight told History.com of the discovery in 1996.

James Redpath, a white director of Freedmen's Bureau (an organization that helped establish schools for newly freed slaves), had over two dozen Union officers, missionaries, and Black ministers give speeches as attendees sang songs like, "We'll Rally around the Flag" and "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Later that afternoon, three white and Black Union officers marched around the soldier's graves and gave a tribute.

The New York Tribune described it as "a procession of friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States never saw before."

Blight wrote in his book, "The war was over, and Memorial Day had been founded by African Americans in a ritual of remembrance and consecration."

According to Blight, for many years, "white Charlestonians suppressed from memory this founding." Allegedly, roughly 50 years after the Civil War, someone at the United Daughters of the Confederacy asked the Ladies Memorial Association of Charleston if the commemoration on May 1, 1865 actually happened and a woman said, "I regret that I was unable to gather any official information in answer to this." 

That denial was routine for many archivers in the area. 

By 1868, the Memorial Day celebration under the direction of General John A. Logan, the president of a Union Army veterans group was written into the historical record. He urged Americans to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers at Arlington Cemetery with flowers on May 30th.

In 1889, Memorial Day became a national holiday. 

Roughly 620,000 soldiers died in the Civil War, most from disease.

Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday in the month of May. It is a federal holiday honoring those who have died while serving. 

[andthisiswitchcraft]

It's #StarSunday! In keeping with Black History Month, I want to honor one of my favorite astronomers/astrologers ever: Benjamin Banneker.

Benjamin Banneker might be one of the most influential astronomers and astrologers in American history. Why have you (probably) never heard of him? Because he was African American. But for so long he has been ignored on the grounds that he was a person of color. He was a brilliant man. Differentiating between the man and the legend is hard to distinguish. Just as all the American founders and revolutionaries have folklore surrounding them, from George Washington to Daniel Webster, so too does Banneker have a great deal of legendry surrounding him. The fact there is any folklore around him is indicative of how incredible he was as a person.

He was born in a semi-rural area outside of Baltimore to freed slaves. His family history is a bit contested. His father was definitely of African descent, though early biographical details of his life indicate his mother was also of African descent, while later biographies contend that his mother was a European indentured servant. This is largely based on the reports of the descendants of a woman who claimed she owned Banneker’s father, then freed, married, and bore a child with him, so this does not carry much weight. None of the surviving documentation on Banneker indicates that he had anything but African heritage.

He was an absolute genius. Being African American, he was unable to obtain any formal education, and therefore was self-taught. It is said that at age 22 he borrowed a clock to use as his model, and then built another one out of only wood that kept perfect time for more than twenty years (quite a feat if it’s your first time making a clock from scratch). Upon learning to read and do basic math, he began reading the ephemeris portion of farmer’s almanacs, and thereby taught himself the principles of astronomy and astrology. His father is believed to have been born in the region of Guinea, which was the name for the southern region of West Africa. It is believed, based on Banneker’s immense knowledge of astrology and star lore, that his father may have been of the Dogon people in the area of current-day Mali, and taught his son at a young age the basics of Dogon astrology.

Banneker was fortunate that he had a patron that saw past the color of his skin and supported him in his astronomical studies. Andrew Ellicott, a geographical surveyor, would loan Banneker surveying instruments, which can also be used for astronomical studies, as well as many books on surveying and astronomy. Banneker even prepared his own ephemeris for the year 1791 (tables for astrological and astronomical studies of the movements of the planets and zodiacs).

When Thomas Jefferson became President, he negotiated the location of the Nation’s Capital, and hired Ellicott to do the land survey of current day Washington D.C. Ellicott hired Banneker to assist him in this effort, and tasked him specifically with marking the 100 square mile boundary of D.C. Banneker was personally a part of the first few stone markers, each laid at one-mile intervals along the boundary of the Capital. Many of these markers are still there today. Banneker is said to have used his astronomical and astrological know-how to lay each marker at specific times for specific correspondences in the heavens, of which the first at Jones Point in Alexandria being the most significant. It is said that he surveyed the land, determined the placement of the marker, then waited until night fall, where he used astronomical instruments and directly observing the stars to ensure the most accurate position of that marker. It is believed that, like the US Capitol Building and the Washington Monument, that this first marker was laid at the precise time Jupiter was ascending over the horizon, which was later that day. Jupiter ascending has extraordinary implications in horary astrology, especially in building projects for a new government.

Banneker would stop his work on surveying the boundary of the District of Columbia to return home to continue his efforts in preparing ephemeres. He completed the one for 1792 and through the recommendation of Ellicott, his work was presented to William Waring, one of the most notable astronomers and ephemeris calculators in the country, to double check the work. Waring stated the work was particularly genius, and was quite surprised to learn that it had been produced by a man of color (Waring was an Abolitionist, by the way). Banneker’s ephemeris was then prepared for publication. He would go on to produce several ephemeres for almanacs for several years.

When he left work on surveying the Nation’s Capital, Banneker wrote to President Jefferson asking for the liberation of all slaves, and used himself and his work on the Capital as a case for the benefit that would become of the Nation if he did so. Jefferson replied in a polite manner, but did not address any of Banneker’s grievances (kind of like what King George did to Jefferson). Later that year Jefferson wrote a French Marquis, one of his friends, that he had personally hired and endorsed Banneker, puffing himself up as a great man for doing so. However, true to form with Jefferson, after Banneker’s death, he would write another friend stating that he thought Banneker was primarily aided by Ellicott in a scheme to benefit the Abolitionists’ movement to end slavery, and then stated that he though Banneker’s intellect was just like a petty commoner. (What a dick).

But he did more than just astronomy. He was a student of the secrets of the natural world. He observed the behavior of bees and the periodic cycles of cicadas. He created mathematical and geometric puzzles. He even kept a dream journal and is believed to have done dream interpretation. He was certainly a man of many talents.

Banneker died alone in his home. He never married or had children. It is uncertain how he died, though some suspect it may have had something to do with his drinking problem (probably from having to put up with Thomas fucking Jefferson). He is buried in Oella, Maryland in an unmarked grave near a museum that was founded in his honor. [In 1976 a memorial was erected as near to his grave as could be determined.]

[Kittee adds: The park and museum in his honor still has beehives on it, and they make mead according to his recipe! He had a huge impact on the beekeeping community in regards to identifying the different species of pollinators and what they are attracted to. 💚]

Franklin

[tomasorban]

THE MOTHER GODDESS

The worship of a Mother Goddess in ancient World mostly related to fertility of the soil [and the botanical life circle] with no connection with any kind of religion. It was the practice of personifying the beauty and bounty of earth as a goddess and it was prevalent in all ancient cultures.

A Chinese story says that although rice has always existed, there was a time that the ears of the rice plants were not filled. Observing that humans were near starvation, the Goddess Guan Yin and to help them, secretly descended to the fields of shoots during the night. When she arrived, she squeezed her breasts until they expressed milk, but the last drop was of blood. From that day on, the buds of the plants produced some useless red grains and the white rice, which served to feed all her people.

Houtu, (also spelled Hou Tu) is the the Deity of Earth, is an almighty goddess in the pantheon. People offer her sacrifices and pray to her for harvest, rain, children, health, wealth, safety when boating in the Yellow River, and the tide when a boat is stranded. In local legends, Houtu often is depicted as a kind, wise, and powerful goddess.

In Japan, it is said that the first cultivator of rice was the Sun Goddess Amatereshu-Omi-Kami. She grew rice in the fields of heaven, giving the first harvest to Prince Ninigi. He was told to take it to “The Land of Eight Great Islands,” Japan.

Also in Japan, in the classic Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters) compiled in AD 712, it is said that rice first came from the eyes of the Food Goddess Ohegetsu-hime.

In southern Philippines, it is said that Agmay, a beautiful slave girl whose mother had died of drudgery and disease, was the first cultivator of rice. One day, as she sat weeping on the bank of the village stream, saddened by thought of her father’s difficult life as a slave and widower, she saw something in the water.

Through tears, Agmay saw a beautiful green grassy tuft, heavy with golden grains, floating on the river. She had never seen such a thing before. She scooped it up and planted the grains in the river mud, praying that they would grow and bring luck. Soon they sprouted and she began mothering her new “green children”, watering them twice daily and protecting them from wild animals. The grain, which was rice, grew quickly. Agmay had such a good harvest that in the next year, her family was freed from slavery.

In Thailand, the Rice Mother Mae Posop is worshiped as rice itself. It is believed that, like a mother who feeds her children, Mae Posop gives her body and soul to sustain human life.

For the Rungo people of Vietnam, the shadows on the moon are created by the Rice Goddess stacking up her freshly harvested rice in the shade of a Bo tree.

Rice is intimately involved in the culture as well as the food ways and economy of many societies. For example, folklore tells us that when the Kachins of northern Myanmar (Burma) were sent forth from the center of the Earth, they were given the seeds of rice and were directed to a wondrous country where everything was perfect and where rice grew well.

Indonesia worships Dewi Sri, the Goddess of Rice, who is believed to have control over birth and life, and controls the rice fields and the growth of rice. Many ancient Javanese and Balinese Kingdoms paid respect and present lavish offerings respect to Devi Sri, ensuring that they continuously have good harvests. Plentiful rice equals to wealth and survival of their kingdoms.

In Malaysia Bambarazon, the Goddess of Mercy, is believed to have created rice, as she secretly slipped down the fields and pressed her breasts until her milk and blood flowed and transformed into rice. To the present day, every Dusun or Kadazan celebrates the “Modsurung“, which is known today as the Harvest Festival, in memory of the great Goddess of Mercy. Traditionally it is  believed that rice, or paddy, is animated by a soul- the rice soul semangat padi.

Mother Goddesses of fertility of the ancient World

The Greeks had Core, the corn-goddess, who was known to Romans as Demeter.

The Egyptians had Isis,

Sumerians had Innana,

Babylonians had Ishtar,

Persians had Anahita and

Vikings had Freia.

In India the mother goddess of fertility has many names and only sometimes is distinguished from the Earth Mother or Divine Female. Unlike the mother goddess, who is a specific source of vitality and shows the circle of life, the Earth Mother is the eternally fruitful source of everything. Mother goddesses are individual, posses distinct characters and are not cosmogonic.

The Universal Earth Mother

The ancient Indus community, perceived the Divine Female as Mother Goddess or Devi. The Rigveda calls the Female power Mahimata, a term which literally means Earth Mother. At places, the Vedic literature alludes to Her as Viraj, the universal mother, as Aditi, the mother of gods, and as Ambhrini, the one born of Primeval Ocean.

The Rigveda takes a mystic line, when it perceives the Divine Female as Vak or Vani, in Vedic mysticism the cosmos and all things pre- exist but are unmanifest. The Vak, or Vani makes them manifest.

The Upanishadas identify her as Prakriti, the manifest nature, which is the material aspect of the Creation, She is the all-pervasive cosmic energy inherent in all existing things. Ushas, the glowing light of early morning. That makes the darkness of night disappear.

The Mahabharata, 3000 years ago, keeping in line with the Vedic mysticism, alludes her as the source of all things, the spiritual as well as material.

Devi‘s cosmic perception is a mix of metaphysics and mythology. In India’s metaphysical perception the Creation has been perceived as comprising of two factors, variedly named as Prakriti and Purusha, Matter and Self, Male and Female and the like. Mythology identifies them as Shiva and Shakti.

As Shakti, she is worshiped by Shaktas, and in this aspect, she denotes the mother of all creation, including the gods. Thus, she represents the divine mother, creator, preserver, the destroyer and the director of all activities in the universe. She is later known as Parvati, the consort of Shiva. In the northern Himalayas, the goddess is believed to be the first to have grown rice.

To Krishna (Vishnu) devotees, she is Mahamaya Radha. The power of female energy has been called variously as Usha, Prithvi, Aditi, Saraswati, Indrani, Rudrani, Sita and Gauri.

[blackpinups]

#Repost @olmecian • • • • • • #Repost @moorinformation ・・・ “#MemorialDay was started by former #African slaves on May, 1, 1865, in #Charleston, S.C., to honor 257 dead Union soldiers who had been buried in a mass grave in an upscale race track converted into a #Confederate prison camp. They dug up the bodies and worked for two 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 3,000 Black children, where they marched, sang and celebrated.” #moorinfo via: @moorinfo2 #olmecian *********** From Huffington Post On May 1, 1865, freed slaves gathered in Charleston, South Carolina to commemorate the death of Union soldiers and the end of the American Civil War. Three years later, General John Logan issued a special order that May 30, 1868 be observed as Decoration Day, the first Memorial Day — a day set aside “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land.” At the time, the nation was reunited politically, but it remained culturally divided, and so did Memorial Day observations. In the North, the federal government created national cemeteries for men who died in the war, while state governments from New York to Michigan gradually made Decoration Day an official holiday throughout the 1870s. In the South, from April to June, women dressed in white and knelt beneath statues of fallen Confederate leaders; they told stories about the men who appeared in portraits lining the walls of many Southern homes. By the early 20th century, as Americans faced enemies abroad, many of the surviving Civil War veterans recognized their shared wartime history and reconciled their differences — turning Memorial Day into a national holiday. #memorial #history #memorialdayweekend #blackhistory #huffingtonpost https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx-FhIDl4DH/?igshid=1oef7ts9i7cs

[old-man-look-at-my-life]

Some things you may NOT know about Mississippi:

The Mississippi Gulf Coast, from Biloxi to Henderson Point, is the longest man-made beach in the world.

The Ringier-America company in Corinth, MS prints National Geographic.

The world's only cactus plantation is located in Edwards, MS with more than 3,000 varieties of cacti.

Mississippi has more tree farms than any other state.

Mississippi has more churches per capita than any other state.

Norris Bookbinding Company in Greenwood, MS is the largest Bible rebinding plant in the nation.

H.A. Cole in Jackson, MS , developed the cleaning product Pine-Sol. Pine-Sol is manufactured only in Pearl, MS .

Dr. Tichenor created "Dr. Tichenor's Antiseptic" in Liberty, MS. (Not in South Louisiana as commonly believed).

Four cities in the world have been sanctioned by the International Theatre/Dance Committee to host the International Ballet Competition: Moscow, Russia; Varna, Bulgaria; Helsinki, Finland; and Jackson, Mississippi.

David Harrison of Columbus, MS owns the patent on the "Soft Toilet Seat." Over one million are sold every year.

The first football player on a Wheaties box was Walter Payton of Columbia, MS .

The Teddy Bear's name originated after a bear hunt in Mississippi with President Theodore Roosevelt. President Roosevelt refused to shoot an exhausted and possibly lame bear. News of this spread across the country, and a New York merchant capitalized on this publicity by creating a stuffed bear called "Teddy's Bear."

H. T. Merrill of Iuka, MS flew the first round-trip transoceanic flight in 1928. The flight to England was made in a plane loaded with ping-pong balls.

The birthplace of Elvis in Tupelo, MS includes: a museum, a chapel, and the two-room house in which Elvis was born.

The world's oldest Holiday Inn is in Clarksdale, MS .

Blazon-Flexible Flyer, Inc., in West Point, MS manufactures the best snow sled in the country, the Flexible Flyer.

Greenwood, MS is the home of Cotton Row, which is the second largest cotton exchange in the nation and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Emil and Kelly Mitchell, the King and Queen of Gypsies, are buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Meridian, MS . Since 1915, people from all over the world have left gifts of fruit and juice at their grave sites.

The 4-H Club began in Holmes County in 1907.

The Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, MS is the largest research, testing, and development facility of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

On April 25, 1866, women in Columbus, MS decorated the graves of Confederate and Union soldiers in Friendship Cemetery . This gesture became known as Decoration Day, the beginning of what we observe as Memorial Day.

Shoes were first sold as pairs in 1884 at Phil Gilbert's Shoe Parlor in Vicksburg, MS .

Inventor James D. Byrd of Clinton, MS holds seven patents and developed the plastic used as a heat shield by NASA.

Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, MS was the first state college for women in the country, established in 1884.

The McCoy Federal Building in Jackson, MS is the first federal building in the United States named for a Black man. Dr. A. H. McCoy was a dentist and business leader.

Hat Maker John B. Stetson learned and practiced hat making in Dunn's Falls, MS.

The oldest field game in America is Stickball, played by the Choctaw Indians of Mississippi. Demonstrations can be seen every July at the Choctaw Indian Fair in Philadelphia, MS .

Alcorn State University, in Lorman, MS is the oldest black land grant college in the world.

The International Checkers Hall of Fame is in Petal, (Hattiesburg) MS.

Natchez, MS was settled by the French in 1716 and is the oldest permanent settlement on the Mississippi River .

Natchez, MS once had 500 millionaires. More than any other city except New York City .

Natchez, MS now has more than 500 buildings that are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Captain Issac Ross of Lorman, MS freed his slaves in 1834 and arranged for their passage to the west coast of Africa . They founded the country of Liberia .

Oliver Pollock was the largest individual financial contributor to the American Revolution. He invented the dollar sign ($). He is buried near Pinckneyville, MS.

Resin Bowie, the inventor of the Bowie Knife, is buried in Port Gibson, MS.

Liberty, MS was the first town in the country to erect a Confederate monument in 1871.

The Pass Christian Yacht Club is the second oldest yacht club in North America, founded in 1849.

The Mississippi Legislature passed one of the first laws in 1839 to protect the property rights of married women.

The Natchez Trace Parkway , named an " All American Road " by the federal government, extends from Natchez to just south of Nashville, Tennessee . The Trace began as an Indian trail more than 8,000 years ago.

The Mississippi Delta is the birthplace of the Blues, which preceded the birth of Jazz, the only other original American art form.

The Vicksburg National Cemetery is the second-largest national cemetery in the country. Arlington National Cemetery is the largest.

D'Lo, MS was featured in Life Magazine for sending proportionally more men to serve in World War II than any other town of its size; 38 percent of the men who lived in D'Lo served.

In 1894, Coca-Cola was first bottled by Joseph A. Biedenharn in Vicksburg, MS .

Mississippi was the first state to outlaw imprisonment of debtors.

Belzoni, MS is the Catfish Capital of the World. Approximately 70 percent of the nation's farm-raised catfish comes from Mississippi.

Fred Montalvo owns the company that makes "Icee" drinks is from Edwards, MS.

Peavey Electronics, in Meridian, MS, is the world's largest manufacturer of musical amplification equipment.

Proportionally more Mississippians were killed during the Civil War than from any other Confederate state.

[smokeybrand]

The More You Know

I found out today that Memorial Day was first celebrated by Black people. We founded that whole celebration. It’s wild because i had no idea until literally hours ago. School doesn’t teach that sh*t. I’ve never seen it in a history book.A guy i know apparently disagreed? When i posted my surprise on Facebook, he hit me with this:

Memorial Day History

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.

I found it odd that, when i claim Black folks founded Memorial Day, dude felt compelled to contradict my claim with the literal textbook designation of the actual, legal, holiday. He glossed over the fact that there had been a ton of individual little services for soldiers that go ll the way back to 1861. That was the first time a Civil War soldier’s grave would ever be decorated. A few others followed but they were for small groups and intimate settings. It wasn’t until 1865 that sh*t popped off for real. As such, my rebuttal to dude’s objective ignorance:

On May 1, 1865, in Charleston, South Carolina, recently freed African-Americans held a parade of 10,000 people to honor 257 dead Union soldiers, whose remains they had reburied from a mass grave in a Confederate prison camp.

1865 beats 1868 by three years, bud. Literally everything that cats do to celebrate Memorial Day, the pomp and circumstance, the parades, the music, all of the respectfully festive energy, is us. It’s what these free slaves, these Black people, did to recognize the people who died for them to be seen as human and not chattel, three years before some General called for an official day. We literally invented what you recognize as Memorial Day, we just didn't call it that. Obviously, no one wants to recognize our contribution because, you know, racism, but of course we did. We always do. This is no different than Rock n Roll, School Lunch, and f*cking WIC.

Dude is vet. He is real deep in that military life and puts a ton of stock into serving. His grandpa served and dude, like, worships that cat. Grandpoop was a racist, though. Dude is kind of an apologist about it because family, something i don’t understand. Dude isn’t  bigot but, since moving to Idaho, he’s well on his way to be. Tangent aside, I do not agree with that whole service sentiment. I think fighting wars for oligarchs and corrupt ideals is dumb. The last war that the US absolutely needed to fight was WWII. Every other one afterwards was just Imperialism, including the one this dude fought in. But i get it. Cats put dumb stock into doing that sh*t. Going overseas to murder brown people and claim it’s in the name of Freedom because that’s what people deserve and you get a Charger after is a thing. It’s f*cking ridiculous but whatever. At least recognize the real history behind the sh*t you claim to hold dear.

[reasoningdaily]

Although several groups have laid claim to the invention of Memorial Day over the years, history proves that the holiday, held in remembrance of America’s fallen soldiers, was in fact invented by Blacks.

According to Time magazine’s “A Brief History of Memorial Day,”

The exact origins of Memorial Day are disputed, with at least five towns claiming to have given birth to the holiday sometime near the end of the Civil War. Yale University historian David Blight places the first Memorial Day in April 1865, when a group of former slaves gathered at a Charleston, S.C., horse track turned Confederate prison where more than 250 Union soldiers had died. Digging up the soldiers’ mass grave, they interred the bodies in individual graves, built a 100-yd. fence around them and erected an archway over the entrance bearing the words “Martyrs of the Race Course.” On May 1, 1865, some 10,000 Black Charleston residents, white missionaries, teachers, schoolchildren and Union troops marched around the Planters’ Race Course, singing and carrying armfuls of roses. Gathering in the graveyard, the crowd watched five black preachers recite scripture and a children’s choir sing spirituals and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” While the story is largely forgotten today, some historians consider the gathering the first Memorial Day

Based on these facts, as well as the celebration’s date, the 1865 account: where freed slaves gathered in Charleston, South Carolina to commemorate the death of Union soldiers at the end of the American Civil War, is the only claim that holds try and true. However, like many events in history, the observance has evolved over time. According to the U.S Department of Veteran Affairs:

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.

So, while you’re manning the grill, sipping poolside, or hitting a variety of epic Memorial Day sales, don’t let the true message of the holiday pass you by — not only are we to remember the freed slaves whom laid the foundation for honoring the 257 dead Union Soldiers, but also the members of their families and their community who fought for our freedom.

[anntyler3]

Your Memorial Day Legal Roundup

For some of us, Memorial Day is a somber day of remembrance to honor those who died while serving our country. Others have big plans to get family around the grill or their boat out on the lake. And still others are just relieved to have a Monday off work.

But how did Memorial Day become a national holiday in the first place, and what specific statutes govern its celebration? Does your boss have to give you the day off? And how do you celebrate safely? Here's a review of Memorial Day-related laws and content:

1. How Did Memorial Day Become a Holiday?

President Lyndon Johnson declared Memorial Day a national holiday in 1966, and we started tying the celebration to the last Monday in May in 1971. But the origins of Memorial Day are much older. Civil War officers and legislators observed Memorial Day on May 30, 1868 in Arlington Cemetery. And remembrances go back even further, even to recently freed slaves honoring dead Union soldiers in Charleston, South Carolina in 1865.

2. Memorial Day Statutes

"The last Monday in May is Memorial Day," proclaims U.S. Code Title 36, Section 116. "The President is requested to issue each year a proclamation":

Calling on the people of the United States to observe Memorial Day by praying, according to their individual religious faith, for permanent peace;

Designating a period of time on Memorial Day during which the people may unite in prayer for a permanent peace;

Calling on the people of the United States to unite in prayer at that time; and

Calling on the media to join in observing Memorial Day and the period of prayer.

3. Do Businesses Have to Give Federal Holidays Like President's Day Off?

The celebration is over one hundred years old and enshrined in federal law. Does that mean your boss has to give you the day off? Probably not. Private employers don't have to give their employees time off, even on days designated as holidays by the federal government, and they certainly don't need to make it paid time off. But most businesses recognize the value of giving their staff time to enjoy holidays like Memorial Day.

4. Traveling for Memorial Day? 5 Legal Tips for the Road

If you're heading out of town for the weekend, make sure you stay safe. While you want to keep a cell phone handy in case of emergency, be aware that many states have different, or conflicting laws on cell phone use while driving. And the same is true if you're planning travelling with a firearm.

5. 3 Ways to Avoid a Memorial Day DUI

Obviously, the biggest safety risk on the road during a holiday weekend is a drunk driver behind the wheel on a holiday bender. Don't let that be you.

And, of course, if you end up in any legal trouble this Memorial Day weekend, make sure to contact a local attorney for help.

Related Resources:

Find Your Lawyer (FindLaw's Lawyer Directory)

Can Your Boss Make You Work on a Holiday? (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)

Everything You Need to Know About Holiday Crime (FindLaw Blotter)

5 Legal Tips for Holiday Weekend DUIs (FindLaw Blotter)

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8246803 http://blogs.findlaw.com/law_and_life/2019/05/your-memorial-day-legal-roundup.html

[awesome-voleaksan-blog]

US Presidents

US Presidents

Presidents' day is a national vacation in america. It's miles a day of honor for all the guys who have served within the office of president of america. As i researched how humans rank the guys that have held the very best office on this land, i was extremely surprised to be challenged through the definition of the term "rank".

Indeed, i noticed lists of the "freshest" presidents of all time. This beauty list typically consists of bill clinton, ronald reagan, thomas jefferson, franklin pierce, and teddy roosevelt. I saw lists of the quality democratic presidents of all time. Of course, there have been lists of the nice republican presidents as well. The list of exceptional democratic presidents commonly protected presidents of greater recent vintage like clinton and kennedy. The republican list nearly always included ronald reagan.

Of course there are some folks who just do not know enough about our history to rank any presidents. In fact, when the query of which presidents were the pinnacle 3 republican presidents in history became recently asked on yahoo, someone known as "simply a median chic" responded: "are there any? Hmmm..... I draw a clean right here".

I concept to myself after searching at that solution that alas many kids had been left at the back of in our instructional device. If this is the information base of the common man or woman, we are a society in large trouble. (observe to america congress, we need to get transferring on that new "no child left behind act").

However, in this presidents' day, my definition of the top rated presidents does now not include being handsome or warm. They do not must be either republican or democrat. They don't have to be cutting-edge or popular. What they want to have carried out to make my list is to have performed the maximum. They want to have made a distinction. They want to be the first-rate and that they want to be identified because the quality over time. So i turned to the consensus ranking amongst scholars for the presidents' scores. Right here is their consensus of the top three rated presidents in american records.

This president said: "the nation which indulges to some other habitual hatred, or an recurring fondness is in some degree a slave. It's far a slave to its animosity or to its affection, both of which is enough to guide it off target from its responsibility and its hobbies." he created a country from not anything. First president of america, "the daddy of the u . S .", george washington is rated 0.33 by students.

This president said: "the handiest issue we should worry is worry itself." returning the us to work after the amazing despair, the new deal, pearl harbor, and world struggle 2, (fdr) franklin delano roosevelt is rated 2d via the consensus of scholars.

Subsequently, it likely does not without a doubt surprise you that abraham lincoln is the choice of students for the fine president of the usa. His most well-known speech became known as "the gettysburg deal with". He became the president throughout the civil war and became responsible for maintaining the union. His emancipation proclamation freed the slaves. He was the primary president assassinated in office and a martyr for the united states. The large sculpture constructed as a memorial to abraham lincoln placed in the country wide mall in washington d.C is actually not overstated.

Of path, there have been many other splendid presidents of america. The list of the students top 10 presidents is going on to consist of thomas jefferson, theodore roosevelt, andrew jackson, woodrow wilson, harry truman, james polk, and dwight eisenhower. But, abraham lincoln is the selection for the satisfactory president of the usa and for the benefit of all the "simply average chics" out there, he become in truth a republican.

[psychicmedium14]

The History of Memorial Day

For nearly 150 years, Americans have gathered in late spring to honor the sacrifice of those who have given their lives in service to their country. What began with dozens of informal commemorations of those killed in the Civil War has grown to become one of the nation’s most solemn and hallowed holidays. From its earliest incarnation as “Decoration Day” to its modern-day observances, check out some surprising facts about the history of Memorial Day. Members of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment place American flags at the graves of U.S. soldiers buried in Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery in preparation for Memorial Day May 24, 2012. Memorial Day and its traditions may have ancient roots. While the first commemorative Memorial Day events weren’t held in the United States until the late 19th century, the practice of honoring those who have fallen in battle dates back thousands of years. The ancient Greeks and Romans held annual days of remembrance for loved ones (including soldiers) each year, festooning their graves with flowers and holding public festivals and feasts in their honor. In Athens, public funerals for fallen soldiers were held after each battle, with the remains of the dead on display for public mourning before a funeral procession took them to their internment in the Kerameikos, one of the city’s most prestigious cemeteries. One of the first known public tributes to war dead was in 431 B.C., when the Athenian general and statesman Pericles delivered a funeral oration praising the sacrifice and valor of those killed in the Peloponnesian War—a speech that some have compared in tone to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. One of the earliest commemorations was organized by recently freed slaves. As the Civil War neared its end, thousands of Union soldiers, held as prisoners of war, were herded into a series of hastily assembled camps in Charleston, South Carolina. Conditions at one camp, a former racetrack near the city’s Citadel, were so bad that more than 250 prisoners died from disease or exposure, and were buried in a mass grave behind the track’s grandstand. Three weeks after the Confederate surrender, an unusual procession entered the former camp: On May 1, 1865, more than 1,000 recently freed slaves, accompanied by regiments of the U.S. Colored Troops (including the Massachusetts 54th Infantry) and a handful of white Charlestonians, gathered in the camp to consecrate a new, proper burial site for the Union dead. The group sang hymns, gave readings and distributed flowers around the cemetery, which they dedicated to the “Martyrs of the Race Course.” The holiday’s “founder” had a long and distinguished career. In May 1868, General John A. Logan, the commander-in-chief of the Union veterans’ group known as the Grand Army of the Republic, issued a decree that May 30 should become a nationwide day of commemoration for the more than 620,000 soldiers killed in the recently ended Civil War. On Decoration Day, as Logan dubbed it, Americans should lay flowers and decorate the graves of the war dead “whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.” According to legend, Logan chose May 30 because it was a rare day that didn’t fall on the anniversary of a Civil War battle, though some historians believe the date was selected to ensure that flowers across the country would be in full bloom. After the war Logan, who had served as a U.S. congressman before resigning to rejoin the army, returned to his political career, eventually serving in both the House and Senate and was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for vice president in 1884. When he died two years later, Logan’s body laid in state in the rotunda of the United States Capitol, making him one of just 33 people to have received the honor. Today, Washington, D.C.’s Logan Circle and several townships across the country are named in honor of this champion of veterans and those killed in battle. Logan probably adapted the idea from earlier events in the South. Even before the war ended, women’s groups across much of the South were gathering informally to decorate the graves of Confederate dead. In April 1886, the Ladies Memorial Association of Columbus, Georgia resolved to commemorate the fallen once a year—a decision that seems to have influenced John Logan to follow suit, according to his own wife. However, southern commemorations were rarely held on one standard day, with observations differing by state and spread out across much of the spring and early summer. It’s a tradition that continues today: Nine southern states officially recognize a Confederate Memorial Day, with events held on Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ birthday, the day on which General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was killed, or to commemorate other symbolic events. It didn’t become a federal holiday until 1971. American’s embraced the notion of “Decoration Day” immediately. That first year, more than 27 states held some sort of ceremony, with more than 5,000 people in attendance at a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. By 1890, every former state of the Union had adopted it as an official holiday. But for more than 50 years, the holiday was used to commemorate those killed just in the Civil War, not in any other American conflict. It wasn’t until America’s entry into World War I that the tradition was expanded to include those killed in all wars, and Memorial Day was not officially recognized nationwide until the 1970s, with America deeply embroiled in the Vietnam War. It was a long road from Decoration Day to an official Memorial Day. Although the term Memorial Day was used beginning in the 1880s, the holiday was officially known as Decoration Day for more than a century, when it was changed by federal law. Four years later, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 finally went into effect, moving Memorial Day from its traditional observance on May 30 (regardless of the day of the week), to a set day—the last Monday in May. The move has not been without controversy, though. Veterans groups, concerned that more Americans associate the holiday with first long weekend of the summer and not its intended purpose to honor the nation’s war dead, continue to lobby for a return to the May 30 observances. For more than 20 years, their cause was championed by Hawaiian Senator—and decorated World War II veteran—Daniel Inouye, who until his 2012 death reintroduced legislation in support of the change at the start of every Congressional term. More than 20 towns claim to be the holiday’s “birthplace”—but only one has federal recognition. For almost as long as there’s been a holiday, there’s been a rivalry about who celebrated it first. Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, bases its claim on an 1864 gathering of women to mourn those recently killed at Gettysburg. In Carbondale, Illinois, they’re certain that they were first, thanks to an 1866 parade led, in part, by John Logan who two years later would lead the charge for an official holiday. There are even two dueling Columbus challengers (one in Mississippi, the other in Georgia) who have battled it out for Memorial Day supremacy for decades. Only one town, however, has received the official seal of approval from the U.S. government. In 1966, 100 years after the town of Waterloo, New York, shuttered its businesses and took to the streets for the first of many continuous, community-wide celebrations, President Lyndon Johnson signed legislation, recently passed by the U.S. Congress, declaring the tiny upstate village the “official” birthplace of Memorial Day. Memorial Day traditions have evolved over the years. Despite the increasing celebration of the holiday as a summer rite of passage, there are some formal rituals still on the books: The American flag should be hung at half-staff until noon on Memorial Day, then raised to the top of the staff. And since 2000, when the U.S. Congress passed legislation, all Americans are encouraged to pause for a National Moment of Remembrance at 3 p.m. local time. The federal government has also used the holiday to honor non-veterans—the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated on Memorial Day 1922. And, while its origins have little to do with fallen soldiers, the Indianapolis 500 has certainly become a Memorial Day tradition of its own–this year marks the 102nd time the race will be run to coincide with the holiday.

[gladevalley]

Memorial Day a Holiday to Remember All Soldiers Who Lost Their Lives

Memorial Day a Holiday to Remember All Soldiers Who Lost Their Lives

by Nathaniel Mulitauaopele

Memorial Day, first observed in 1868 has become a holiday to remember all soldiers that have lost their lives in service of their country.

Memorial Day was originally called “Decoration Day” and celebrated after the civil war; however it became an official federal holiday in 1971. [1] It was first celebrated by freed slaves to honor the soldiers that died fighting for…

[reasoningdaily]

Newly-freed African Americans who fought in the Civil War decorated soldiers' graves on the first cited Memorial Day on May 1, 1865. 

More than 10,000 formerly enslaved people and white missionaries held a parade at a race track in Charleston, South Carolina. 

Memorial Day became a national holiday in 1889. 

The origin of Memorial Day is hotly debated, with many cities across the country claiming to have been the birthplace of the first celebration. Those include Waterloo, New York and Carbondale, Illinois, among others.

However, in Charleston, South Carolina, it is thought that one celebration occurred prior to any other in the country. In 1865, newly-freed African Americans who were fighting in the Civil War decorated soldiers' graves in the first recorded Memorial Day celebration, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, David W. Blight.

At that point, it was called "Decoration Day."

According to Blight's 2001 book, "Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory," on May 1, 1865, more than 10,000 formerly enslaved people and white missionaries held a parade where school children, members of the Black Union battalions, and Black religious figures marched around a racetrack in Charleston. 

"There was a file labeled 'First Decoration Day' and inside on a piece of cardboard was a narrative handwritten by an old veteran, plus a date referencing an article in The New York Tribune. That narrative told the essence of the story that I ended up telling in my book, of this march on the race track in 1865," Blight told History.com of the discovery in 1996.

James Redpath, a white director of Freedmen's Bureau (an organization that helped establish schools for newly freed slaves), had over two dozen Union officers, missionaries, and Black ministers give speeches as attendees sang songs like, "We'll Rally around the Flag" and "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Later that afternoon, three white and Black Union officers marched around the soldier's graves and gave a tribute.

The New York Tribune described it as "a procession of friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States never saw before."

Blight wrote in his book, "The war was over, and Memorial Day had been founded by African Americans in a ritual of remembrance and consecration."

According to Blight, for many years, "white Charlestonians suppressed from memory this founding." Allegedly, roughly 50 years after the Civil War, someone at the United Daughters of the Confederacy asked the Ladies Memorial Association of Charleston if the commemoration on May 1, 1865 actually happened and a woman said, "I regret that I was unable to gather any official information in answer to this." 

That denial was routine for many archivers in the area. 

By 1868, the Memorial Day celebration under the direction of General John A. Logan, the president of a Union Army veterans group was written into the historical record. He urged Americans to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers at Arlington Cemetery with flowers on May 30th.

In 1889, Memorial Day became a national holiday. 

Roughly 620,000 soldiers died in the Civil War, most from disease.

Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday in the month of May. It is a federal holiday honoring those who have died while serving. 

[reasoningdaily]

Newly-freed African Americans who fought in the Civil War decorated soldiers' graves on the first cited Memorial Day on May 1, 1865. 

More than 10,000 formerly enslaved people and white missionaries held a parade at a race track in Charleston, South Carolina. 

Memorial Day became a national holiday in 1889. 

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The origin of Memorial Day is hotly debated, with many cities across the country claiming to have been the birthplace of the first celebration. Those include Waterloo, New York and Carbondale, Illinois, among others.

However, in Charleston, South Carolina, it is thought that one celebration occurred prior to any other in the country. In 1865, newly-freed African Americans who were fighting in the Civil War decorated soldiers' graves in the first recorded Memorial Day celebration, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, David W. Blight.

At that point, it was called "Decoration Day."

According to Blight's 2001 book, "Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory," on May 1, 1865, more than 10,000 formerly enslaved people and white missionaries held a parade where school children, members of the Black Union battalions, and Black religious figures marched around a racetrack in Charleston. 

"There was a file labeled 'First Decoration Day' and inside on a piece of cardboard was a narrative handwritten by an old veteran, plus a date referencing an article in The New York Tribune. That narrative told the essence of the story that I ended up telling in my book, of this march on the race track in 1865," Blight told History.com of the discovery in 1996.

James Redpath, a white director of Freedmen's Bureau (an organization that helped establish schools for newly freed slaves), had over two dozen Union officers, missionaries, and Black ministers give speeches as attendees sang songs like, "We'll Rally around the Flag" and "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Later that afternoon, three white and Black Union officers marched around the soldier's graves and gave a tribute.

The New York Tribune described it as "a procession of friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States never saw before."

Blight wrote in his book, "The war was over, and Memorial Day had been founded by African Americans in a ritual of remembrance and consecration."

According to Blight, for many years, "white Charlestonians suppressed from memory this founding." Allegedly, roughly 50 years after the Civil War, someone at the United Daughters of the Confederacy asked the Ladies Memorial Association of Charleston if the commemoration on May 1, 1865 actually happened and a woman said, "I regret that I was unable to gather any official information in answer to this." 

That denial was routine for many archivers in the area. 

By 1868, the Memorial Day celebration under the direction of General John A. Logan, the president of a Union Army veterans group was written into the historical record. He urged Americans to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers at Arlington Cemetery with flowers on May 30th.

In 1889, Memorial Day became a national holiday. 

Roughly 620,000 soldiers died in the Civil War, most from disease.

Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday in the month of May. It is a federal holiday honoring those who have died while serving.