The origins of Memorial Day

[Kobi]

Originally Posted by Martina

My family are from Kentucky, and we take flowers to relatives' graves on Memorial Day, whether they were military or not.

Thank you so much, Kobi, for that history. i had no idea. i have been reading some of the articles that have been written because of the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War. The NY Times has been doing a series, and Time Magazine had a wonderful article a month or so ago about how our understanding of the war, particularly its causes, has been fashioned by ideology and politics over the years.

This information is powerful because it shows how allied freed slaves were with the Union side. Part of the conservative refashioning of the public memory is that Gone With the Wind narrative of the slaves staying with their former Masters, feeling as if they were better off with them than at the mercy of northerners who would exploit them.

i love knowing that this is another tradition added to the common culture by African Americans. And it's something to see how that has been erased.

When I first read that article, I said wow, what an interesting piece of history that was forgotten. And it is.

Then I read it again. And I found myself marveling at the assumptions inherent in it and wondering if the conclusions were the result of someone asking these persons why they did what they did or if we just presumed thru our "white" view of life why they did it.

It doesnt diminsh what was done or the tradition it started. But it would be nice to know the history from the perspective of the people who lived it.