Veteran will get another chance to give censored Memorial Day speech

A retired U.S. Army officer whose speech about freed Black slaves honoring fallen Civil War soldiers was censored by organizers of a Memorial Day ceremony will get another chance to deliver it.

The American Legion Department of Ohio said it has invited retired Army Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter to speak next week at the organization’s Buckeye Boys State, an annual gathering that teaches young men about government.

Kemter was speaking at a Memorial Day event hosted by a local American Legion post in northeastern Ohio when his microphone was turned off as he talked about the role Black people played in how Memorial Day began.