The morning of May 1, 1865, dawned with promise over Charleston, South Carolina. The city that had fired the first shots of the Civil War now bore the scars of Confederate defeat. Yet something extraordinary was stirring in the ruins.
At nine o’clock sharp, a procession unlike any the South had ever witnessed began to form. Three thousand black schoolchildren, many learning to read for the first time, carried armloads of roses and sang with voices lifted high: “John Brown’s body lies a-moldering in the grave, but his soul goes marching on!”
Behind them marched women of the Patriotic Association, then members of the Patriotic Association of Colored Men, followed by crowds both black and white. All were bound for a humble cemetery marked by a whitewashed fence and an archway bearing the words “Martyrs of the Race Course.”
The Truth They Don’t Want You to Know
What brought ten thousand people to this place? Here rested 257 Union soldiers who had died in Confederate captivity, hastily buried in a mass grave when this racetrack served as a makeshift prison. Twenty-eight black workmen had spent weeks exhuming the remains, reinterring each soldier with dignity, and creating what would become America’s first Memorial Day ceremony.
Let that sink in, black America. WE created Memorial Day. Not the white establishment. Not the government. US.
These newly freed men and women understood something profound: those who had fought for their liberation deserved better than an unmarked grave. They chose remembrance over resentment, gratitude over grievance.
The Lie That Enslaves Minds
Today’s progressive plantation overseers want you to believe that black Americans have always seen this nation as irredeemably wicked, that patriotism is somehow a betrayal of your blackness. This is not merely false—it is a vicious lie designed to keep you mentally enslaved.
The truth obliterates this narrative. On that May morning, it was not the privileged who first honored America’s war dead. It was those who had been enslaved, who had known the lash and the chain, who now stood as free men and women choosing to honor soldiers who had died for their freedom.
These weren’t Uncle Toms. These were warriors fresh from bondage who recognized that freedom requires memory, gratitude, and the courage to honor those who paid its price.
Biblical Memory vs. Progressive Amnesia
Scripture commands us to remember. “Remember the days of old,” Moses instructed (Deuteronomy 32:7). The freed slaves of Charleston embodied this biblical principle, demonstrating what Paul calls the “sacrifice of thanksgiving” (Philippians 4:18).
These men and women could have chosen bitterness. Instead, they chose wisdom over woundedness. They recognized that Union soldiers had died so they might breathe free air. This wasn’t Stockholm syndrome. This was spiritual maturity that today’s black leaders desperately lack.
As black ministers led prayers and children sang “The Star-Spangled Banner,” they were not celebrating a perfect nation. They were honoring a nation worth perfecting. They understood the difference between America’s founding principles and its founding failures. They could love the former while working to correct the latter.
They believed in America before America fully believed in them. That’s not weakness—that’s prophetic faith.
Historical Theft and Reclamation
The Charleston ceremony sparked what became our national Memorial Day. Every grave decorated, every flag planted traces its lineage back to those freed men and women who chose remembrance over resentment.
But here’s what they don’t want you to know: this founding moment was deliberately erased from history. For over a century, this inconvenient truth was suppressed because it didn’t fit anyone’s preferred narrative—not white supremacists who couldn’t stomach black patriotism, and not modern progressives who can’t profit from black gratitude.
They stole our story and replaced it with grievance. They robbed us of our heritage and handed us victimhood instead.
Time to Break Mental Chains
This Memorial Day, reclaim your history and reject the lies. The children who sang “John Brown’s Body” in 1865 understood something the modern black establishment has forgotten: freedom is never free, and those who secure it deserve our gratitude and commitment to preserving what they died to defend.
Black America, you are not victims. You are the children of patriots. You are the descendants of men and women who looked at a flawed nation and saw its potential for redemption.
Break the mental chains that tell you patriotism is “acting white.” Reject the lie that love of country is incompatible with love of justice. Follow instead the example of those freed slaves who, in their first act as free Americans, chose to honor the fallen.
They showed us that true patriotism means believing in America’s founding truths enough to die for them—and to remember those who did.
The blood of patriots flows in your veins. The DNA of freedom-fighters courses through your heritage. You are not the descendants of slaves—you are the children of survivors, of warriors, of men and women who understood that some things are worth dying for.
May God grant us wisdom to remember rightly and faith to believe that the God who brought freedom from bondage is still sovereign. For it is not our skin color that defines us but our hope in the God who declares that “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17).
Rise up, black America. Remember who you are. Remember whose you are. And remember that freedom—true freedom—begins in the mind.
