Decoration (Memorial) Day Celebration

A special evening remembering the Gullah traditions centered around Decoration Day and the events of the Martyrs of the Race Course ceremony of 1865.

Morning Glory Homestead Farm invites you to attend our Gullah Campfire Supper with Stories and Songs for May as we host our annual Decoration Day Event. The theme is "Decoration Day: A Community Celebration". This special event will recount circumstances that support "the case for Charleston, South Carolina, as Memorial Day's birthplace, as that city was the site of an obscure (possibly suppressed) May 1865 event held at a racetrack turned war prison, during which freedmen properly reburied hundreds of Union dead found there and then held a ceremony to dedicate the cemetery: African Americans founded Decoration Day at the graveyard of 257 Union soldiers labeled ‘Martyrs of the Race Course,' May 1, 1865, Charleston, South Carolina". In addition, guest speaker, Major General and Airline Captain (Retired), and Beaufort City councilman Harold L. "Mitch" Mitchel, a proud graduate of Robert Smalls High School, and a Beaufort City Councilman since November of 2020, will share how his family and community celebrated Decoration Day while growing up and what the holiday meant to him during his military and civilian careers.

Your hosts for the evening, Tony and Belinda Jones, dressed in period clothing will meet you at the Coffin Point cemetery for a short ceremony at the graves of two United States Colored Troops servicemen. Following the ceremony, the program and meal take place back at the farm. Under the canopy of brilliant live oaks a delicious meal of Gullah food traditions will be served, period and modern songs will be sung and an informative presentation will be made providing an exciting experience of history and culture.