Memorial Day 2015, just like Memorial Day 2014. Same Stuff, Different Year

 The Memorial Day History Forgot.

Medgar Evers survived WWII, only to be murdered fighting for democracy and human rights when he returned to the U.S.  Evers fought for voting rights and investigated/exposed the murders of African Americans such as Emmett Till, Clinton Melton, and many more. To honor his memory and sustain his legacy, teach about Megar Evers and the many other war veterans who were killed when they returned, most often for trying to vote.

The simple white marble headstones lined up in rows across Arlington National Cemetery are arranged without regard to rank, gender, branch of military or race. The cemetery however began in a time of slavery, through segregation and discrimination. Many of the men and women buried in Arlington National Cemetery broke through barriers and boundaries to become the first of their race to reach certain military accomplishments. - See more at: http://www.freetoursbyfoot.com/black-history-of-arlington-national-cemetery/#sthash.H4jeJ5Nm.dpuf

Fast forward to #MemorialDay2015:  Cleveland Police arrest African American protesters for protesting.

The protesters had largely been orderly as they marched around downtown and into several nearby neighborhoods after the acquittal of Police Officer Michael Brelo was announced this morning.
As police drove the protesters away from the East Fourth area, people cheered the officers from the Euclid Avenue sidewalks, many recording the action.

So this is the land of the free and the home of the brave....

 When you celebrate Memorial Day, raise a fist for John Sims. Thank him for speaking his mind and expressing his beliefs. The Confederate flag is a symbol of white supremacy and the years of suffering of black people, and that lingering hope of some that we will return to toiling in the cotton fields, and swinging from the poplar trees if we get too uppity. This is the N-word on a pole. If America had its own version of the Nazi swastika, this would be it.

Happy Memorial  Day.  It's like Deja Vu all over again.

I write this post in honor and in memory of my paternal grand father who fought overseas in World War 2  then returned to the Jim Crow south to teach at what was known then as the Veterans Continuation School (pre GI Bill), a federal program designed for veterans returning home from the war to continue their education. He and my paternal grandmother taught classes at night and received a stipend. One of the classes they taught was how to pass the Literacy test. My grandparents were exempt from paying the $2.00 poll tax and allowed to vote because they were teachers at the school. So you see, even though my paternal grandfather was a WW2 veteran he didn't have the full rights and privileges he'd risked life and limb fighting for overseas.

 RedEye

Honoring James Meredith on D-Day

At Hernando, Mississippi - 30 miles from his starting point - he saw an armed man aim at him and dived to the ground, but he was shot three times. Bleeding from the head, shoulder and leg he shouted: "Oh my God."

As thousands gather on Omaha Beach at the site of the D-Day invasion to honor those who fought and died and those who survived,  I would like to honor James Meredith, who on this day 48 years ago survived being shot during a march against fear in Mississippi.

 On June 5, 1966, equipped with only a helmet and walking stick, James Meredith began a 220-mile March Against Fear from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi. Mr. Meredith, an activist who had integrated the University of Mississippi four years earlier, organized the one-man march to encourage African Americans in Mississippi to register to vote and to challenge the culture of fear perpetuated by white supremacists in the state.

After attending local segregated schools and graduating from high school, Meredith enlisted in the United States Air Force. He served from 1951 to 1960.  Here part of what President Obama said at today's ceremony in France about those who served on D-Day.

They left home barely more than boys and returned home heroes. But to their great credit, that is not how this generation carried itself. After the war, some put away their medals, kept humble about their service, and moved on. Some, carrying shrapnel and scars, found that they couldn't. Many, like my grandfather, who served in Patton's Army, lived a quiet life, trading one uniform and set of responsibilities for another -- teacher, doctor, engineer, Dad. Our country made sure millions of them earned a college education, opening opportunity on an unprecedented scale. They married those sweethearts and bought new homes and raised families and built businesses, lifting up the greatest middle class the world has ever known. And through it all, they were inspired, I suspect, by memories of fallen brothers -- memories that drove them to live their lives each day as best they possibly could.

Whenever the world makes you cynical -- stop and think of these men.

Call me cynical, but men like James Meredith came home and had to fight for  basic equal, civil, and human rights.

 When blacks came home after the war, whites were prepared to "put them back in their place." Henry Murphy said that when he returned to the states and called his father in Mississippi, his father warned him not to come home with his uniform on. "He said that the police was beating black soldiers and searching them.

So on this day I choose to remember James Meredith and all the other blacks who came home from the war to fight another war.