According to David Blight’s book, “Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory,” May 1, 1865 was the first Memorial Day. On that date, 10,000 people gathered in Charleston, South Carolina, mostly freedmen, to honor those Civil War soldiers who died to free them from slavery.
Blight wrote, “African Americans invented Memorial Day in Charleston, South Carolina. What you have there is black Americans recently freed from slavery announcing to the world with their flowers, their feet, and their songs what the war had been about.”
Speaking about the Lord, David wrote in Psalm 18:34, “He trains my hands for battle, So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.”
Take a moment today to honor those who died living out their vocational calling in our Armed Services.
