Many towns and villages in upstate New York recently celebrated Memorial Day with

parades and ceremonies. Our area is particularly proud of the role that Waterloo played

in hosting one of the first incarnations of Memorial Day on May 5, 1866. Other

communities throughout the nation have claimed the honor of being the first to honor

the more than 650,000 who died during our bloodiest war. Those of us working on the

local Black History in a Year initiative take pride in recognizing the role that thousands of

newly freed enslaved people took in generating a tribute (perhaps the first) to the fallen

on May 1, 1865, in Charleston. For more about this event and its relation to other

memorials, read Yale University historian, David Blight’s 2011 article (Opinion |

Forgetting Why We Remember - The New York Times).

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Rather than claiming the first Memorial Day, we raise up the undervalued role that Black

Americans played in the Union victory. Historians of the war estimate that close to a

third of all black soldiers (40,000) died in the conflict. Black Wayne County residents

were no exception.

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Local historians have documented that formerly enslaved men from the tiny Black

community of less than one hundred souls, known as the Maxwell Settlement (near

what is now Sodus Pt.), enlisted in the segregated United States Colored Troops

(USCT). Half a dozen died in service. We memorialize them and raise their sacrifice to

the same level as their White brethren.

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