Editor’s Note: This story originally was published in the Crusader on May 25, 2017
The date was May 1, 1865. One year after Arlington National Cemetery was founded in Virginia, another cemetery 532 miles south was becoming part of history. Located in Charleston, SC, it was the final resting place of over 200 soldiers of color who died during the Civil War.
What happened some 152 years ago would remain buried for over a century until David Blight, a renowned Yale University professor, scholar and author, discovered that Blacks founded what is now known to millions of Americans as Memorial Day…