An organizer of a Memorial Day event in Hudson, Ohio, cut off a 77-year-old military veteran’s microphone as he began discussing the Black community's significance to Memorial Day.
Retired Army Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter, the event’s keynote speaker, was about midway through his speech when his microphone stopped functioning, The Akron Beacon Journal reports. At first, it was assumed that the error was innocuous, but an organizer of the event confirmed that it was anything but.
According to a written draft of the speech obtained by The Journal, Kemter was elaborating on the origins of what was once called Decoration Day, where freed Black people paid their respects to fallen soldiers by decorating their grave sites, before his mic was muted.
According to Time, more than 10,000 Black people partook in the inaugural Memorial Day ritual.
“More importantly than whether Charleston’s Decoration Day was the first, is the attention Charleston’s Black community paid to the nearly 260 Union troops who died at the site. For two weeks prior to the ceremony, former slaves and Black workmen exhumed the soldiers’ remains from a hastily dug mass grave behind the racetrack’s grandstand and gave each soldier a proper burial,” Kemter said after his mic’s audio was cut.
“It was often the African American southerners who perpetuated the holiday in the years immediately following the Civil War,” he added.
The military veteran was forced to go through nearly two minutes of his address without audio amplification, according to The Journal.
Cindy Suchan, an organizer of the event, confirmed that the audio had been muted intentionally because Kemter’s statements were “not relevant to our program for the day,” which was dedicated to “honoring Hudson veterans.”
She said prior to the event that organizers asked Kemter “to modify his speech and he chose not to do that.” Suchan said she and fellow organizer Jim Garrison were the ones responsible for cutting the mic after a sound engineer refused to follow their instruction.
Although the woman refused to say which part she wanted omitted, she confirmed that the two minutes when Kemter’s microphone was turned off were part of what she asked him to take out of his address.
During the week of the ceremony, Kemter said he was emailed by an event organizer who asked him to remove a part of his speech discussing Black Americans' role in early Memorial Day-like celebrations. Though he didn’t share why the organizer asked him to cut this part, Kemter said he asked the organizer to elaborate on the specific portions they wanted to exclude.
Later in the week, he received an email back from the organizer with a message stating that the sections they wanted removed were highlighted, according to The Journal. The Army vet said he did not see any text highlighted, and he didn’t reach out to the organizer for clarification with hours left before the event.
Instead, Kemter said he showed a copy of the speech to a local public official who suggested that he leave the address as he intended.
Despite the incident, Kemter remarked that people present for the event said it was “well-received” and earned him “numerous compliments.” Still, he was disappointed that such an opportunity would see him robbed of his First Amendment right.
“I find it interesting that [the American Legion] … would take it upon themselves to censor my speech and deny me my First Amendment right to [freedom of] speech,” Kemter said.
“This is not the same country I fought for," he went on.
Following the event, the Ohio American Legion confirmed that it is investigating the incident.
“The Ohio American Legion assures us that they are fully investigating this incident. Regardless of the investigation’s outcome, the national headquarters is very clear that The American Legion deplores racism and reveres the Constitution. We salute LTC Kemter’s service and his moving remarks about the history of Memorial Day and the important role played by Black Americans in honoring our fallen heroes. We regret any actions taken that detracts from this important message, "National Commander James W. “Bill” Oxford wrote on the organization’s website.
