HUDSON, Ohio -- The American Legion Department of Ohio announced Friday that it suspended the Hudson Lee-Bishop American Legion Post 464 and that the chapter is at risk of permanent closure.
Jim Garrison, the former adjutant of the post, has resigned from his position as a Post Officer upon demand from the American Legion Department of Ohio. The American Legion Department of Ohio also demanded that Garrison resign his membership from American Legion altogether, according to a statement released by the statewide organization.
The suspension comes after Garrison and Cindy Suchan, chair of the Memorial Day parade committee and president of the Hudson American Legion Auxiliary, participated in shutting off the sound during Army Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter’s Memorial Day speech.
No action has currently been taken against Suchan, as the auxiliary is a separate entity from the Hudson Legion post.
The post invited Kemter to give a speech during the Memorial Day holiday event. Part of his speech included reference to the contributions of freed Black slaves to the origins of Memorial Day. When he began sharing the history, someone cut his audio. It’s not clear whether Suchan or Garrison turned off the microphone, but one of them did it, Suchan told the Akron Beacon Journal, which first reported the incident.
“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,” the organization wrote in the release. “We discovered that the censoring that occurred at the Memorial Day Ceremony in Hudson, Ohio, sponsored by Hudson American Legion Post 464, was premeditated and planned by Jim Garrison and Cindy Suchan. They knew exactly when to turn the volume down and when to turn it back up.”
Suchan received a copy of the speech from Kemter before the ceremony, and she asked him to remove the passage about the slaves.
Kemter said he didn’t see Suchan’s suggestions in time to rewrite the speech, and a Hudson public official also told him not to change anything. He was disappointed in what happened, saying, “This is not the same country I fought for.”
Hudson American Legion post suspended, pending permanent closure following Memorial Day speech censorship inc - cleveland.com
Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment