A federal holiday since 1971, the roots of Memorial Day go back over a century prior, to the end of the Civil War.
After the burial of many Union and Confederate soldiers, "decoration day" rituals began to spring up, which included placing fresh flowers on soldiers' graves.
One of the earliest known celebrations took place in Charleston, South Carolina on May 1, 1865, when the city's freed Black residents organized a proper burial for hundreds of Union soldiers who had died in a Confederate prison, followed by a parade to honor their memory.
In the spring of 1868, General John Logan officially designated May 30th "for the purpose of strewing flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in the defense of their country," and Memorial Day as we know it today was established.
The first "Decoration Day" (now Memorial Day) was organized in Charleston, SC, on May 1, 1865. Formerly enslaved Black Americans initiated it to properly rebury Union soldiers who died in a Confederate prison. Historical accounts point to a Black contractor who was hired to build the fence around the graves.
The Historical Context:
- The Location: The site was the Washington Race Course (now Hampton Park), which had been used as a Confederate prison camp.
- The Labor: Freedmen and Black church members worked to locate the bodies of the 257 Union soldiers from mass graves, giving them individual burials, building an enclosure, and whitewashing a fence.
- The Celebration: On May 1, 1865, a crowd of approximately 10,000 people—mostly Black residents—gathered to decorate the graves with flowers and crosses. The event featured a parade of 3,000 Black schoolchildren singing hymns, followed by speeches and picnics.
You can learn more about this historical event and how it was rediscovered by historian David Blight in the Smithsonian Magazine Article. For further details on how this grassroots event evolved into the federal holiday, check the National Cemetery Administration's Memorial Day History.
