Advocacy For The Forgotten

05/19/2026

Memorial Day Ceremony at The Buffalo Soldiers -22nd Regiment Cemetery. Tuckahoe Rd. Franklinville NJ May 25, 2026 @ 10:00 AM

05/19/2026

05/30/2023

Lest We Forget

, also known as Decoration Day, is an annual holiday where our nation pauses to honor the service and sacrifice of military heroes who gave their lives for our freedoms.

The first noted commemoration of fallen soldiers was organized by freed slaves on May 1, 1865 in Charleston, S.C. It was held on a former planters’ racetrack where Confederates held captured Union soldiers during the last year of the Civil War.

The roughly 250 prisoners who died in the attack had been buried in unmarked graves, so Black residents of Charleston gave them a proper burial. Memorial Day became recognized as an official federal holiday in 1871.

Frederick Douglass delivered a speech at Arlington National Cemetery as part of the first official Decoration Day commemoration. He emphasized the importance of honoring those who sacrificed their lives, stating: “dark and sad will be the hour to this nation when it forgets to pay grateful homage to its greatest benefactors.”

📸 Arlington Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. Courtesy of Library of Congress

07/06/2022

May 28, 2022 Honored The "Wall of Soldiers" New Jersey 22nd regiment U.S. Colored Troops who fought in the Civil War for my freedom and yours