AI
Monday, May 25, 2009 12:35:41 PM
President Sends Wreath to Confederate Memorial Despite Appeal from Scholars
President Barack Obama steps back after placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns during a Memorial Day celebration at Arlington National Cemetery May 25, 2009 in Arlington, Virginia. The United States is remembering the members of its armed services and those who have died serving the country today.
(Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images/ABC News)
As a Compromise, Obama Also Sends Wreath to African-American Civil War Memorial
By KAREN TRAVERS
May 25, 2009
Despite an appeal for him to end a presidential tradition [ http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=7657749 ] dating back to Woodrow Wilson, President Barack Obama sent a Memorial Day wreath to the Confederate Monument at Arlington Cemetery. But he also sent a wreath to a monument honoring African-American soldiers who fought in the Civil War.
A group of several dozen university professors and scholars wrote a letter to the president asking him to not send a wreath or any commemorative token [ http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=7668239 ] to the memorial erected in honor of the soldiers who fought and died for the South in the Civil War.
Click here to read the full text of the letter [ http://abcnews.go.com/US/Story?id=7658404 ].
"We ask you to break this chain of racism stretching back to Woodrow Wilson, and not send a wreath or other token of esteem to the Arlington Confederate Monument," the letter states. "This monument should not be elevated in prestige above other monuments by a presidential wreath."
In their letter to the president, the group says that the monument is a "denial of the wrong committed against African Americans by slave owners, Confederates, and neo-Confederates."
Obama also sent a wreath to the African-American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C. He is the first president to send a wreath to this memorial that honors the 200,000 African-American soldiers who fought for the Union Army.
Obama observed another annual presidential tradition [ http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=7668265 ] with a public wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
Obama also sent wreaths to the Mast of the USS Maine and the Spanish American War Memorial, both at Arlington.
The president called for Americans to observe a national moment of silence at 3 p.m. local time, continuing a tradition started in 2000.
The Confederate monument at Arlington dates back to 1914, when it was unveiled on the 106th anniversary of the birthday of the president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis.
In the early days, though hundreds of Confederate soldiers were buried at Arlington, it was considered a Union cemetery and family members of Confederate soldiers buried there were not allowed to visit the graves.
In 1900, Congress authorized a special section of Arlington to be set aside as a burial location for nearly 500 Confederate soldiers. They are buried in concentric circles, with the monument built in the center.
A Presidential Tradition
On June 4, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson spoke at the monument as veterans from the Union and Confederate Armies laid wreaths on the graves, as a symbol of unity.
Since then, American presidents have sent a wreath to adorn the monument. President George H.W. Bush changed the tradition [ http://a.abcnews.com/Politics/wireStory?id=4930386 ] by sending a wreath on Memorial Day, not on Davis' birthday as his predecessors had done.
President Obama used his weekly radio/Internet address to pay tribute to America's veterans, servicemen and women, and their families.
"This is not only a time for celebration, it is also a time to reflect on what this holiday is all about; to pay tribute to our fallen heroes; and to remember the servicemen and women who cannot be with us this year because they are standing post far from home – in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world," he said on Saturday.
ABC News' Sunlen Miller contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=7669826 [with comments]
President Barack Obama steps back after placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns during a Memorial Day celebration at Arlington National Cemetery May 25, 2009 in Arlington, Virginia. The United States is remembering the members of its armed services and those who have died serving the country today.
(Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images/ABC News)
As a Compromise, Obama Also Sends Wreath to African-American Civil War Memorial
By KAREN TRAVERS
May 25, 2009
Despite an appeal for him to end a presidential tradition [ http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=7657749 ] dating back to Woodrow Wilson, President Barack Obama sent a Memorial Day wreath to the Confederate Monument at Arlington Cemetery. But he also sent a wreath to a monument honoring African-American soldiers who fought in the Civil War.
A group of several dozen university professors and scholars wrote a letter to the president asking him to not send a wreath or any commemorative token [ http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=7668239 ] to the memorial erected in honor of the soldiers who fought and died for the South in the Civil War.
Click here to read the full text of the letter [ http://abcnews.go.com/US/Story?id=7658404 ].
"We ask you to break this chain of racism stretching back to Woodrow Wilson, and not send a wreath or other token of esteem to the Arlington Confederate Monument," the letter states. "This monument should not be elevated in prestige above other monuments by a presidential wreath."
In their letter to the president, the group says that the monument is a "denial of the wrong committed against African Americans by slave owners, Confederates, and neo-Confederates."
Obama also sent a wreath to the African-American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C. He is the first president to send a wreath to this memorial that honors the 200,000 African-American soldiers who fought for the Union Army.
Obama observed another annual presidential tradition [ http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=7668265 ] with a public wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
Obama also sent wreaths to the Mast of the USS Maine and the Spanish American War Memorial, both at Arlington.
The president called for Americans to observe a national moment of silence at 3 p.m. local time, continuing a tradition started in 2000.
The Confederate monument at Arlington dates back to 1914, when it was unveiled on the 106th anniversary of the birthday of the president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis.
In the early days, though hundreds of Confederate soldiers were buried at Arlington, it was considered a Union cemetery and family members of Confederate soldiers buried there were not allowed to visit the graves.
In 1900, Congress authorized a special section of Arlington to be set aside as a burial location for nearly 500 Confederate soldiers. They are buried in concentric circles, with the monument built in the center.
A Presidential Tradition
On June 4, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson spoke at the monument as veterans from the Union and Confederate Armies laid wreaths on the graves, as a symbol of unity.
Since then, American presidents have sent a wreath to adorn the monument. President George H.W. Bush changed the tradition [ http://a.abcnews.com/Politics/wireStory?id=4930386 ] by sending a wreath on Memorial Day, not on Davis' birthday as his predecessors had done.
President Obama used his weekly radio/Internet address to pay tribute to America's veterans, servicemen and women, and their families.
"This is not only a time for celebration, it is also a time to reflect on what this holiday is all about; to pay tribute to our fallen heroes; and to remember the servicemen and women who cannot be with us this year because they are standing post far from home – in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world," he said on Saturday.
ABC News' Sunlen Miller contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=7669826 [with comments]
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
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