Before Memorial Day…There Was…“Decoration Day”

By Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter Emeritus
New Journal and Guide

Since May 30, 1868 the nation has uniformly observed a Memorial Day to  recognize and remember the sacrifices of  the nation’s warriors who served and fell in battle.

But before there was Memorial Day, it was on “Decoration Day” in late May when communities adorned the grave sites of their dead kin.

“Decoration Day was a very important holiday,  back in the day,” said Charles Johnson, the President of the African American Historical Society of Portsmouth (AAHSP).  “It respected the  sacrifices of our Black ancestors’ warriors.”

Starting in the early 1800s, in America  specifically Appalachia, and Liberia where former Blacks migrated to the African continent, a fashion of  “Decoration Day” was observed.

The first edition of paying tribute to the nation’s fallen soldiers was organized by former slaves and White Missionaries in Charleston, South Carolina in late May of 1865.  It took place at a former brutal Confederate prison camp.   Black and White soldiers who died there were finally given a proper burial.

After the Civil War, soldiers who fought for the Union Army, composed of mostly northern states formed  “The Grand Army of the Republic.”

Posts of the GAR were formed mostly in the North, but according to Charles Johnson’s posts, were formed in Dixie.

One was formed by Norfolk-Portsmouth veterans.  Black and White Union soldiers joined in fellowship to run it.

Johnson said the first recorded instance of the then mostly Black Norfolk-Portsmouth GAR “Decoration Day” event was in 1884.  The Veterans collaborated with Black civic and social organizations, he said , and organized a parade.

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The parade marched to the Wilson and Calvary cemeteries where Black veterans were interned, and family decorated their graves with flowers and seashells.

Another part of this story is related to the  20-foot high monument dedicated to the Black Civil War dead in Portsmouth’s Lincoln Cemetery.  Johnson said his association’s research on the Calvary and Lincoln observances unearthed a fascinating tale about it and the one located in West Point Cemetery in Norfolk.

After the Civil War,  Confederate veterans  fueled by the “Lost Cause and Redemption” propaganda of the war,  and funds collected by the  Daughters of the Confederacy, built huge monuments to their heroes who fought to maintain slavery.

By coincidence or intent, as in case of Norfolk and Portsmouth, Black Historians say these structures were built at, or near the sites of the Slave Markets Units of the GAR, built their monuments, too, mostly in the  North.  In the South, Black political and civic leaders raised money to build theirs, too.

In Portsmouth  starting in 1892, the GAR launched a campaign to raise money to have such a monument  in Mt. Olive-Wilson.  But, in 1916 the Silas Fellows Post of the GAR   raised enough money to erect the current monument at the Lincoln Memorial.

Norfolk’s fund raising effort  started about the same time as the one in Portsmouth.   It managed to raise enough to build the base of the structure by 1916. In 1920 the West Point Monument was fully completed and dedicated.

“Over the years there has always been a debate on which was first, the monument in Norfolk or Portsmouth,” said Johnson. “I don’t think it matters, both communities sought to recognize the importance of our history.”