Decoration Day

Decoration Day. Civil Rights Trail. , In the years after the Civil War, African Americans across the country commemorated fallen Union soldiers with Decoration Day, a precursor to modern Memorial Day celebration., Following the creation of the Fredericksburg National Cemetery in 1866, African American people from Fredericksburg, Richmond, and Washington, D.C., organized to honor Union soldiers. In 1871, a multiracial group of 1,500 people met at the train station and paraded to the cemetery, where they shared speeches, prayers, poems, and music, and decorated the graves., While Black newspapers like Frederick Douglass's New National Era applauded the efforts, the local paper The Free-Lance published insulting coverage, signaling continued attachment to the Confederacy and accompanying racist attitudes. Of the formerly enslaved and Black participants at the gathering, the paper rote: "The white people looked on in disgust and contempt…It was a pitiful sight, an honor sought to be paid by those who scarcely knew what honor meant.", In 1884, Union veterans with the Grand Army of the Republic invited Confederate veterans to Decoration Day. The Confederates had one condition: African Americans were not permitted to participate. Thus, while Black people originated the tradition that evolved into Memorial Day, by the beginning of the twentieth century they were largely excluded from the event., [Captions:] , In the 1880s, efforts at reconciliation between North and South reduced Black participation in Decoration Day events. By the time this postcard appeared in 1907, Decoration Day's origins in African American communities had become increasingly obscured., Decoration Day events included speeches, music, and flowers left at the graves of Union troops. This advertisement appeared on May 30, 1871., The National Park Service sponsors an annual Memorial Day ceremony at Fredericksburg National Cemetery, featuring members of the 23rd Regiment United States Colored Troops, pictured here. Photograph courtesy 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry., Early efforts to commemorate. Union soldiers occurred at the National Cemetery at Fredericksburg, sketched here by W.L. Shepperd for Harper's Weekly Magazine on October 26, 1867. Image courtesy Dickinson College.