Memorial Day, now synonymous with the unofficial start of summer and retail discounts, has deep roots in the American Civil War. The holiday, originally called Decoration Day, was first observed nationally on May 30, 1868, when Union veterans decorated war graves with flowers. However, local observances predate this, with Waterloo, New York, holding a formal event on May 5, 1866, and Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, tracing its first observance to October 1864.
Yale historian David Blight highlights a significant event on May 1, 1865, in Charleston, South Carolina, where as many as 10,000 people, many of them Black, dedicated graves of Union dead. This event, involving Black church members burying 267 Union troops from a Confederate prison, is considered by some as the first Memorial Day. In 2021, a retired Army lieutenant colonel cited this story in a speech, but organizers turned off his microphone, deeming it irrelevant, leading to their resignation.
Concerns about the holiday's drift from its original purpose are not new. In 1869, The New York Times warned it could become 'sacrilegious' if focused on pomp and oratory. In 1871, abolitionist Frederick Douglass urged remembrance of the Civil War's cause—enslavement—at Arlington National Cemetery. Professor Ben Railton notes that despite 180,000 Black Union soldiers, the holiday became 'white Memorial Day' in many communities after Jim Crow.
Even presidential conduct drew scrutiny: in the 1880s, Grover Cleveland went fishing on the day, appalling the public. The Indianapolis 500 held its inaugural race on May 30, 1911, with no mention of the holiday. Memorial Day's significance diminished with Armistice Day (later Veterans Day) in 1918. In 1971, Congress moved Memorial Day to the last Monday in May, further shifting its focus.
