ANTHOLOGY - Special Memorial Day Edition

Original Broadcast Date: May 30, 1954
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Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service and has its origins in the American Civil War.
The almost overwhelming number of soldiers, more than 600,000 from both sides, who died in that war, a war sometimes described as a war of brother against brother, meant that burial and memorialization of fallen soldiers took on a cultural significance bordering on the sacred. During the war women of the Confederacy made the decorating of soldiers' graves an increasingly formal practice.
After the war, the first well known organized observance of a day to memorialize the sacrifices of Union soldiers was in Charleston, South Carolina. At least 257 of the Union soldiers held as prisoners at the Charleston Race Course died and were hastily buried in unmarked graves. On May 1, 1865, black residents of Charleston, together with teachers and missionaries, organized a May Day ceremony. The freedmen cleaned up and landscaped what was a crude, makeshift cemetery, building an enclosure and an arch labeled, "Martyrs of the Race Course." Nearly ten thousand people, mostly freedmen including about 3,000 school children newly enrolled in freedmen's schools, members of mutual aid societies, black ministers, white northern missionaries, and Union soldiers gathered to commemorate the war dead. Most brought flowers to lay on the graves. Years later in the north, the celebration would come to be known as the "First Decoration Day."
In 1865, the federal government began creating national military cemeteries for the Union war dead. In the summer of that year a Waterloo, New York, druggist Henry Welles, while talking to friends, suggested that it might be good to remember those soldiers who did not make it home from the war. Not much came of it until he mentioned it to General John B. Murray, a Civil War hero, who gathered support from other surviving veterans. On May 5, 1866, they marched to the three local cemeteries and decorated the graves of fallen soldiers.
On May 5, 1868, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, the organization for Union Civil War veterans, General John A. Logan issued a proclamation calling for "Decoration Day" to be observed annually and nationwide. It was observed for the first time that year on May 30 when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The date was not chosen to commemorate a battle but as the optimal date for flowers to be in bloom, emphasizing the custom of decorating the graves of fallen soldiers. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873 and by 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war.
The preferred name for the holiday gradually changed from "Decoration Day" to "Memorial Day." It was first used in 1882 but did not become the more commonly used name until after World War II. It was declared the official name by federal law in 1967. On June 28, 1968, congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved four holidays, including Memorial Day, from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create convenient three-day weekends. The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. After some initial confusion and unwillingness to comply, all 50 states adopted congress' change of date within a few years.
Many feel that when Congress made the day into a three-day weekend in with the National Holiday Act, it made it easier for people to be distracted from the spirit and meaning of the day. As the VFW stated in its 2002 Memorial Day address: "Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed greatly to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day."
With that in mind and to help Americans remember of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the "National Moment of Remembrance" resolution was passed in December 2000. The resolution asks for all Americans "to voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence" at 3 p.m. local time. Still many feel the "Moment of Remembrance" is a only a small step in the right direction to return the original meaning to the day.
What is needed, they contend, is a full return to the original day of observance. Setting aside one day out of the year for the nation to come together to remember, reflect, and honor those who have given the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country. To return the solemn, and even sacred, spirit to Memorial Day

Waterloo, New York, still celebrates Memorial Day on May 30.