A top official of an American Legion post in Ohio resigned on Friday, June 4, after Memorial Day ceremony organizers appeared to mute his microphone when he celebrated Black Americans.
The decision to switch off a retired US Army officer's mic while he delved into the powerful history of freed Black slaves and how they honored dead soldiers following the Civil War was met with backlash, ABC News reports.
American Legion officials in Ohio also suspended the post's charter and are preparing to close it altogether.
On Friday, retired Army Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter, who included the story about Black slaves, did so with the intention of sharing the origins of Memorial Day.
However, organizers of the event in Hudson, Ohio, felt that this part of his speech was not relevant to the ceremony, which was supposed to honor the city's veterans.
Per ABC News, Cindy Suchan, chair of the Memorial Day parade committee and president of the Hudson American Legion Auxiliary admitted that either she or Jim Garrison, adjutant of the American Legion Post 464, turned down the mic.
Garrison stepped down as head of the American Legion a day after the state organization urged him to resign, said Roger Friend, department commander for the Ohio American Legion.
The former head has also been asked to withdraw his membership altogether, Friend added.
"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, according to the outlet.
According to Friend, the incident had been planned by Garrison and Suchan.
"They knew exactly when to turn the volume down and when to turn it back up," Friend said.
In the lead-up to the event, Suchan said she had gone over the speech and had requested that Kemter take out certain sections. However, Kemter maintains he had not seen the suggested revisions in time to modify the speech.
Kemter, who had spent 30 years in the Army and served in the Persian Gulf War, told The Beacon Journal that he felt let down by organizers who cut him out for two minutes during his 11-minute speech.
The mic went silent just as he started educating people on how freed slaves exhumed the dead bodies of more than 200 Union soldiers from a mass grave in Charleston, South Carolina, and provided them with a suitable burial.
Hudson's mayor and City Council said in a statement on Thursday that the decision to censor the veteran was disrespectful.
"Veterans have done everything we have asked of them during their service to this country, and this tarnished what should have been a celebration of their service," he said.
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