Rev. William Pierce

Pierce: Freed Slaves Started Memorial Day
Pierce: Freed Slaves Started Memorial Day
Pierce: Freed Slaves Started Memorial Day
Former slaves began the observance now known as Memorial Day immediately after the end of the Civil War. "Memorial Day was started by former slaves on May the first of 1865 in Charleston, South Carolina, to honor 257 dead Union soldiers who had been buried in a mass grave at a Confederate prison camp,"  the Rev...