“I was very, very angry, very upset that those two people are basically putting me in that position and then taking control of my equipment,” Stokes said.Īt the time, Stokes didn’t realize the intent was to silence Kemter as he spoke about African Americans' contribution, he said.īut minutes before the incident, Stokes had approached Suchan to ask her how everything sounded. After about two minutes, Garrison turned the volume back up. To protect his equipment, Stokes pointed to the volume knob, which Garrison turned down, he said. The pair had ordered Stokes to cut the sound, but he refused, so Garrison began pulling on cords on the sound board, Stokes said. He told Kemter he had been ordered to cut the sound by event organizers, Cindy Suchan, a Hudson resident, and Jim Garrison, an adjutant of American Legion Lee-Bishop Post 464, Stokes said.

But when Kemter’s speech ended, Stokes said he approached him to let him know it was no accident. When the sound was cut, Kemter thought it was a glitch in Stoke’s system and kept speaking. “I wanted to inform the people of the contribution that these African Americans had made in establishing the first Memorial Day service, and then in later years, keeping that alive in the South, until finally, the city of Charleston has put up historical markers about it,” Kemter said. Kemter had begun talking about the freed slaves in Charlotte who at the end of the Civil War had returned to a Union prisoner-of-war camp and dug up soldiers’ bodies from a mass grave to give them a proper burial, he said.Ī month later, a ceremony was held - widely considered by historians the first Memorial Day - when more than 10,000 participants walked through Charlotte, carrying flowers, and singing a song about abolitionist John Brown, who was born in Hudson. “This is why you moved in closer, so you could hear this,” Kemter joked to the crowd when the sound went out, continuing his speech. The men knew each other growing up in Hudson.īefore he began speaking, Kemter had asked the crowd to move closer because he was eager to share some obscure information he had found while researching for the speech, he said. Stokes, a Hudson resident who owns Stokes Sound & Video, and was providing sound for the ceremony. On Monday, when the sound went out, Kemter at first tapped the microphone, and then with a smile said, “A.J., mic,” to draw the attention of A.J. “My whole intention at that speech was to be educational and informative, as to the origin of Memorial Day - kind of why we have the services that we do,” he said. Barnard Kemter’s 11-minute speech, about the origins of Memorial Day.Ī Hudson native, Kemter moved away from his birthplace in 1970, but as a former Army lieutenant colonel, he has been asked to serve as keynote speaker for Memorial Days past, he said. When Stokes refused, the event organizers turned the volume off, but Kemter continued speakingĭuring the event Monday in Markillie Cemetery in Hudson, the sound was cut off about two minutes into Lt.Stokes to cut the sound during a specific part in the speech Organizers ordered sound designer A.J.Barnard Kemter, a former Hudson resident, talked about freed slaves in Charlotte reinterring soldiers’ bodies from a POW camp A veteran’s speech was silenced by event organizers when he recounted the influence freed slaves had on the first Memorial Day.Kemter, who spent 30 years in the Army and served in the Persian Gulf War, told The Beacon Journal he was disappointed that the organizers silenced two minutes of his 11-minute speech. Kemter said he didn’t see the suggested changes in time to rewrite the speech. In the days before the ceremony, Suchan said she reviewed the speech and asked Kemter to remove certain portions. “They knew exactly when to turn the volume down and when to turn it back up,” Friend said. He said the censoring was premeditated and planned by Garrison and Suchan. “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,” Friend said in a statement. Garrison has since been asked to drop his membership altogether, Friend said. Garrison resigned his leadership position a day after the state organization demanded he step down, said Roger Friend, department commander for the Ohio American Legion. Cindy Suchan, chair of the Memorial Day parade committee and president of the Hudson American Legion Auxiliary, said this week that either she or Jim Garrison, adjutant of the American Legion Post 464, turned down the audio, the Akron Beacon Journal reported.

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