A day of remembrance for the fallen

A day of remembrance for the fallen

On May 1, 1865, newly freed slaves in Charleston, South Carolina, held a parade of 10,000 people to honor 257 dead Union soldiers who had been buried in a mass grave. The former slaves had unearthed and properly buried the soldiers, placing flowers at their graves. David Blight, a professor of history and African American studies at Yale, has called the Charleston commemoration the first Memorial Day, although the inaugural official national obs…