Since the founding of America, more than 1 million people have died in service of our country.
One of the earliest celebrations is believed to have been organized by a group of freed African Americans in Charleston, S.C., after the fall of the Confederacy in 1865. According to David Blight, a Yale University history professor, the Confederate Army used the Washington Race Course and Jockey Club as a prison for Union captives. More than 260 soldiers died at the prison. At the conclusion of the Civil War, one of the first things the freed Black men and women did, Blight said, was to give the Union prisoners a proper burial. Then, on May, 1, 1865, nearly 10,000 freed slaves gathered for a parade to honor those who gave their lives for a cause.
History doesn’t record what was said that day, but the experiences of those attending during the war and the uncertainties of the future were even more daunting than those of today.
The first formal celebration didn’t occur until May 30, 1868, when Congressman James Garfield helped 5,000 participants decorate the graves of more than 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers who were buried at Arlington Cemetery.
It wasn’t until after World War I that Decoration Day became a nationwide day for honoring those who died in all of America’s wars. The tradition of wearing red poppies on the day to symbolize resilience derived from a poem written by Lt. Col. John McCrae to honor the 87,000 allied soldiers who were killed during a battle at Flanders Field in Belgium.
Decoration Day didn’t officially become Memorial Day after after World War II and the Korean War. In 1968, in the midst of the Vietnam War, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as a federal holiday on the last Monday in May. The change formally went into effect in 1971 and was designed to honor all those who died in wars.
Andrew Weston touches the gravestone of his uncle, U.S. Army Vietnam war veteran Thomas Shaun Monahan, at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery on Memorial Day, Monday, May 31, 2021 in Elwood, Ill. (AP Photo/Shafkat Anowar) President Joe Biden makes the sign of the cross as he places a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, Monday, May 31, 2021, in Arlington, Va.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon) An early morning visitor to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington pauses to look at a name on the wall on Memorial Day, Monday, May 31, 2021. (AP Photo/J. David Ake) Louise Voelker and her son Charlie enjoy the opening ceremony of the Boy Scouts of America Memorial day observance in Davie, Fla., at the Bergeron Rodeo Grounds, Monday, May 31, 2021. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP) WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 31: A person points to the Veterans and Athletes United memorial made up of 7,000 dog tags engraved with names of soldiers who died between 2001 and 2019 at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall on May 31, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images) *** BESTPIX *** Joe Britain, from Dyer, Ind., sits near the grave stone of his grandfather, U.S. Army Korea war veteran Harry P. Brotan, at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery on Memorial Day, Monday, May 31, 2021 in Elwood, Ill. (AP Photo/Shafkat Anowar) From left are Phil Skala, Larry Searle, and Rich Horner of VFW Post 155, Johnstown, Pa., shown during the playing of Taps at Memorial Day service in Johnstown, PA., Monday, May 31, 2021. (John Rucosky/Tribune-Democrat via AP) WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 31: A man pauses as he reads the names inscribed on the marble panels of the Vietnam War Memorial on the National Mall on Memorial Day, May 31, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images) The Field of Heroes at Centennial Park across from Tulsa VFW Post 577 Monday, May 31, 2021 in Tulsa, Okla. The field contains empty boots to give a visual representation of Oklahoma’s fallen service members. (Mike Simons/Tulsa World via AP) WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 31: Chloe McCain kneels in front of the headstone of her father, Johnathan McCain, who was killed during the war in Iraq in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery during Memorial Day on May 31, 2021 in Arlington, Virginia. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images) FORT KNOX, KY – MAY 31: A small child stands with her parent and looks over headstones after a Memorial Day ceremony in the Fort Knox Main Post Cemetery on May 31, 2021 in Fort Knox, Kentucky. The cemetery is a burial ground for 967 U.S. Military personnel, foreign personnel, civilian dependents, POWs, and Unknowns. The ceremony also commemorated the centennial of the first soldier buried in the cemetery in 1921. (Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images) Army Cpt. Darren M. Cinatl touches the headstone of his friend Andrew Joseph Baddick in section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day in Arlington, Va., Monday, May 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
