Little-Known Memorial Day History; Freed slaves and white missionaries came together on 1 May 1865 in Charleston, SC to memorialize soldiers that were buried in unmarked graves at a former racetrack where Confederates held Union prisoners.

Little-Known Memorial Day History; Submitted to the FKPC website by Brigadier General (Retired) Richard K. Sele

I am delighted to present to you today a very interesting guest article sent to me by a friend, Richard Sele, for Memorial Day weekend.

The commonly held belief is that the first commemoration of Memorial Day occurred in 1866 when women laid flowers on the graves of Civil War soldiers in Mississippi. One little-known, maybe even overlooked, event is that freed slaves paid tribute to the fallen in 1865. Writer and Professor at Yale David Blight wrote about this event in his 2001 book Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory.

Freed slaves and white missionaries came together on 1 May 1865 in Charleston, SC to memorialize soldiers that were buried in unmarked graves at a former racetrack where Confederates held Union prisoners.

In the days leading up to the event, the former slaves reorganized the graves into rows and built a 10-foot white fence around them, with the words “Martyrs of the Race Course” written in black letters on an archway. Starting at 9am on the 1st, about 10,000 Charlestonians, mostly black, participated in the event. Children sang songs, aid groups and former Union officers gave remarks, and pastors provided sermons and prayers. They held a parade around the racetrack and decorated the graves with flowers. Picnics followed and, in the afternoon, three black and white Union regiments performed drill and ceremony around the graves.

Years later when the racetrack was torn down, the graves were relocated to the national cemetery in Beaufort, SC. Aside from two articles reporting on the 1865 event in The New York Tribune and The Charleston Courier, any memories of the celebration disappeared with that relocation. However, there is a sketch of the event housed in The Library of Congress.

Interesting to note, Blight gave a talk about Memorial Day in 2001 at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. After the discussion, a black woman who grew up in Charleston approached him and said that her grandfather used to tell her a story of a parade at the old race track. She never knew if it was true but Blight’s account confirmed it.

Information gathered from “The Overlooked Black History of Memorial Day” by Olivia Waxman for Time (May 22, 2020) and “One of the Earliest Memorial Day Ceremonies Was Held by Freed African Americans” by Dave Roos for History Channel (May 24, 2019 and updated May 16, 2023).

Brigadier General (Retired) Richard K. Sele began his career in the U.S. Army as an enlisted Interrogator and Linguist and retired 35 years later in 2018 as the Deputy Commanding General of the U.S. Army Civil Affairs & Psychological Operations Command (Airborne). He’s commanded soldiers through the 1-Star level, served in 5 conflict zones, and a number of staff assignments through the strategic level.

He has published articles on national security related issues for the peer-reviewed journal “Low Intensity Conflict and Law Enforcement” and the Army professional journal “Military Review.” BG (Ret) Sele has an MS in National Security Strategy, MA in International Relations, and a BA in Psychology. He now works as a civilian contractor for U.S. Special Operations Command.