For the Black citizens of Charleston—newly freed, barely weeks into their emancipation—had laid claim not just to the bodies in those graves, but to the memory of the war itself. They had buried the Union dead with honor. And in so doing, they had given birth to what would one day be called Memorial Day.
7/21

Image: Black American laborer between 1861-1865, known as contraband. These men worked as teamsters for the Union army.