Story at a glance
- The head of the American Legion Post 464 in Ohio has resigned following the decision to cut Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter’s mic during a Memorial Day event.
- The American Legion Department of Ohio in response suspended the post’s charter.
- “The American Legion Department of Ohio does not hold space for members, veterans, or families of veterans who believe that censoring black history is acceptable behavior,” Roger Friend, department commander for the Ohio American Legion, said.
The leader of an American Legion post in Ohio has resigned after making the decision to censor a U.S. Army veteran who was speaking on the role Black people played in the founding of Memorial Day.
Army Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter, 77, gave a speech in front of hundreds of people in Hudson, Ohio, on the history of Memorial Day, during an event marking the holiday last week.
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Kemter’s microphone was cut off when he began discussing how freed Black slaves in Charleston, S.C., were among the first to commemorate Union soldiers who died as prisoners of war by giving them a proper burial, decorating their graves and organizing a parade in their honor.
While it was assumed to be a technical glitch at the time, The Akron Beacon Journal reported the event’s organizers admitted to cutting the audio as Kemter’s discussion “was not relevant to our program for the day.”
Cindy Suchan, who chairs the Memorial Day parade committee and is president of the Hudson American Legion Auxiliary, told the news outlet it was either she or Jim Garrison, the head of the American Legion Post 464, who purposely cut the audio.
Suchan had received a copy of Kemter’s speech before the event and asked him to leave out the part in which he said “several newly freed black slaves were among the first to commemorate Memorial Day after the Civil War ended,” according to The American Legion Department of Ohio.
Kemter decided to keep that part in his speech.
The American Legion Department of Ohio in response suspended the post’s charter, and Garrison stepped down from his leadership position not long after the state organization demanded he resign.
“The American Legion Department of Ohio does not hold space for members, veterans, or families of veterans who believe that censoring black history is acceptable behavior,” Roger Friend, department commander for the Ohio American Legion, said in a statement.
“We are deeply saddened by this and stand in unity and solidarity with the black community and all peoples of race, color, religion, sex, and gender, so that those who are exclusive of such persons will know that this behavior is not acceptable in The American Legion, in our homes, our hearts, our communities, in private, public, or anywhere,” Friend said.
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