(Please
enjoy this reprised edition of “Break It Down!” This post was
originally published May 30, 2012 at: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com)
OK,
so Memorial Day was earlier this week. You
may be familiar with my holiday week philosophy, which is: make it easy on the
readers, who are always otherwise engaged, no matter the holiday. Of
course, in the process, I am also giving myself a break. That makes for a
natural win-win scenario.
With
that overarching thought in mind, I will endeavor
to apply three elementary rules of effective communication:
Memorial
Day is
a federal holiday, observed the last Monday in May, to honor America’s fallen soldiers. It originated after the Civil War. Falling between Easter and Independence Day, it is often equated with a late spring
break, or a pre-summer respite. In fact, many consider it the
unofficial first weekend of summer, contrasted with the Labor Day Holiday Weekend, which signals the unofficial end of
summer.
The
holiday weekend typically includes a cornucopia of
sports. For example Memorial Day 2016 weekend's events included matches
from the French Open, the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600, a Game 7 in the NBA Conference Finals, College Men’s Baseball playoffs,
College Women’s Softball competition, and Championships in Men's
and Women's Collegiate Lacrosse, coincidentally, both won by teams from the
University of North Carolina, among other sports.
With
the rapidly heating-up political season thrown in the mix, the holiday is
sometimes almost lost in the shuffle, especially this year with Donald Trump
totally reinventing the GOP, and Bernie Sanders fashioning his own brand of
revolution in the Democratic Party. But wait; Memorial Day also
has a special cultural significance. In fact, it is because of that nexus we should pay special homage to this late spring holiday.
The
first well-known observance of a Memorial Day type was
held May 1, 1865 in Charleston, South Carolina. Over 250 Union soldiers that had been prisoners of war,
died in Charleston, and were quickly buried in makeshift
graves. A group of blacks, mostly freedmen, organized the observance and led
cleanup and landscaping of the burial site.
Most
of the nearly 10,000 people who attended were freedmen and
their families. Of that number, 3.000 were children,
newly enrolled in freedman’s schools. Mutual aid societies, black ministers, and white Northern missionaries were
also in attendance.
David W. Blight, Professor of American History at Yale University, and Director of the
school's Gilder-Lehrman Center for the Study of
Slavery, Resistance, & Abolition, described the day this way:
"This
was the first Memorial Day. African Americans invented Memorial Day in
Charleston, South Carolina. What you have there is black Americans recently
freed from slavery announcing to the world with their flowers, their feet, and
their songs what the War had been about. What they basically were creating was
the Independence Day of a Second American Revolution.”
Professor
Blight conceded
there is no evidence that the Charleston event led directly to
the establishment of Memorial Day across the country. But the record is clear they formed the earliest truly large-scale event,
complete with media coverage. Their effort was the prototype, if not the catalyst.
Having
said that, I believe I honored the rules established above for this
post:
• Told this story in a direct and
uncomplicated fashion
• Presented information I am confident
most readers did not know
• Recognized points 1 and 2,
were accomplished and closed the post
I’m
done; holla back!
Read
my blog anytime by clicking the links: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com or /http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com.
A
new post is published each Wednesday.
For more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post,
consult the links below:
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