An Army veteran’s mic was cut off in the middle of his speech as he spoke about the Black community’s role in the history of Memorial Day.
The unusual incident took place in the US where organizers of a Memorial Day Ceremony turned off the microphone when a former Army officer began talking about how freed Black slaves had honored fallen soldiers soon after the Civil War.
In his speech at the memorial event held at the cemetery, retired Army Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter wanted to recognize the role African-Americans played in the formation of Memorial Day tradition.
Kempter referenced historians from Harvard when he said, “Memorial Day was first commemorated by an organized group of freed black slaves less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered.”
However, Kemter who served in the Persian Gulf war was intentionally silenced as soon as he highlighted the contribution of Afro-Americans to American history.
The video footage of the incident shows Kemter tapping on the mic a few times before asking for assistance but continues his speech when the problem does not seem to be fixed.
“Like anyone else, I figured it was a technical difficulty,” said Mr. Kemter, who had continued his speech with an unamplified voice.
However, the organizers of the ceremony held in Hudson, Ohio, admitted to deliberately turning the mic off and claiming that part of the speech was not relevant to the program’s theme of honoring the city’s veterans.
Cindy Suchan-Rothgery, one of the organizers of the memorial, acknowledged that she or Mr. Garrison, another organizer, had turned off Mr. Kemter’s microphone for two minutes.
“Mr. Kemter’s narrative was not relevant to our program for the day and the theme of the day was honoring Hudson veterans,” She told the newspapers.
James Garrison, the main accused of the “censorship” act, has resigned as a post office, a statement by the ceremony organizers posted on Facebook on Friday.
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