The Black History Behind Memorial Day | AURN News

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]AUR In News >> I'm Ebony McMorris. As a nation pauses this Memorial Day to honor the fallen, it is important to remember a piece of history that lies at the foundation of the holiday. A story that begins not in Washington, but Charleston, South Carolina in the spring [music] of 1865.

[00:00:17]Just weeks after the Civil War ended, thousands of newly freed black residents of Charleston gathered at a former Confederate racetrack, a place where Union prisoners had been captive and buried in unmarked mass graves. They reorganized the graves in proper rows, erected a fence, and built an archway reading "Martyrs of the Race Course".

[00:00:37]Historians, including Pulitzer Prize winner David Blight, have called that ceremony one of the most significant early Memorial Day observances on record. From the 54th Massachusetts Infantry to the United States Colored Troops, black soldiers didn't just fight in wars. As one Civil War re-enactor put it, "We built this nation and we saved [music] this nation." For AUR In News, I'm Ebony McMorris.