Veteran's microphone cut off when he discusses Blacks' role in establishing Memorial Day

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What at first blush appeared to be a short audio malfunction at Monday's Memorial Day ceremony in Markillie Cemetery turned out to be anything but. A ceremony organizer turned off the microphone when the event's keynote speaker, retired Army Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter, began sharing a story about freed Black slaves honoring deceased soldiers shortly after the end of the Civil War.

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The microphone was turned down for about two minutes in the middle of Kemter's 11-minute speech during the event hosted by the Hudson American Legion Lee-Bishop Post 464. Cindy Suchan, who chairs the Memorial Day parade committee and is president of the Hudson American Legion Auxiliary, said it was either her or Jim Garrison, adjutant of American Legion Lee-Bishop Post 464, who turned down the audio. When pressed, she would not say who specifically did it.

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“It was well-received,” Kemter said, adding many people told him, “I never knew that.” He expressed disappointment with the event organizers' actions. “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.”

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Kemter, a 1962 Hudson High School graduate, said he was trained as a combat medic, was in the U.S. Army from 1965 to 1995, and served in the Persian Gulf War. In the days leading up to the ceremony, Suchan said she reviewed Kemter’s speech and asked him to remove certain portions. “We asked him to modify his speech, and he chose not to do that,” said Suchan.

Suchan declined to say which part she wanted excluded, but confirmed the two minutes when Kemter’s microphone was turned off were part of what she asked him to exclude. During those two minutes, Kemter is heard discussing how former slaves and freed Black men shortly after the Civil War exhumed the remains of more than 200 Union soldiers who died in battle in Charleston and gave them “a proper burial.”

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