Veteran will get another chance to give censored Memorial Day speech

HUDSON, Ohio — A retired U.S. Army officer whose speech about freed Black slaves honoring fallen Civil War soldiers was censored by organizers of a Memorial Day ceremony will get another chance to deliver it.

The American Legion Department of Ohio said it has invited retired Army Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter to speak next week at the organization’s Buckeye Boys State, an annual gathering that teaches young men about government.

Kemter was speaking at a Memorial Day event hosted by a local American Legion post in northeastern Ohio when his microphone was turned off as he talked about the role Black people played in how Memorial Day began.

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The organizers of the ceremony turned off a speaker’s microphone when the former U.S. Army officer began talking about how freed Black slaves had honored fallen soldiers soon after the Civil War.

Two of the event’s organizers later resigned under pressure after Ohio American Legion officials said the decision censoring the speech was premeditated and planned.

The organizers of the ceremony in Hudson, Ohio, initially defended their decision, saying the section of the speech that was silenced was not relevant to the program’s theme of honoring the city’s veterans.

The Ohio American Legion has temporarily suspended the post. A meeting is planned later this month to discuss its future.

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