Mayor Johnson invokes ‘soul’ of Chicago’s ancestors at Memorial Day ceremony

Mayor Brandon Johnson invoked the “soul” of Chicago’s ancestors at a Memorial Day ceremony with veterans and their families in Grant Park on Monday.

Other dignitaries at the hourlong ceremony reflected on the complicated history of Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, the Illinois native and Civil War general who helped start the holiday.

Logan’s statue was the site of Monday’s commemoration.

Participants walked up a small hill to the monument and laid wreaths honoring fallen members of each branch of the armed forces — including a wreath for the newly formed Space Force.

Johnson, speaking at his first major holiday event since his inauguration in mid-May, reflected on the struggles for national unity in the Civil War, and the service of Black soldiers who fought for democracy but still lacked the rights of full citizens.

“I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the fact that I would not be here representing the soul of our ancestors in the city of Chicago if it were not for the soldiers whose humanity had not been recognized. They stood for democracy,” Johnson said.

Johnson recalled how Black people had decorated the grave sites of those fallen Black soldiers in the Civil War.

“Through the collective struggle for democracy and liberation ... this nation did not flinch or fold when there were those who wanted to divide us,” Johnson said. “Knowing the dangers and the risks, these heroes forged ahead anyways to serve a righteous call.”

“So of course it is our duty as grateful residents to preserve the values for which they fought, and to build a better, stronger, safer Chicago and nation that is worthy of their sacrifice,” Johnson said.

Graham Grady, treasurer of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois, recalled the service of his great-great-grandfather, who died in the Civil War. Born a slave in Kentucky, he was freed to serve in the U.S. Colored Troops in the Tennessee military. He served as a cook and died of pneumonia in 1864. Most people killed in that war died of disease, not from combat.

“My great-great grandfather did not die with a rifle in his hand. He was a cook. He died with a ladle in his hand,” Grady said.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle reflected on the complicated history of General Logan, whose statue was placed atop a grassy hill in Grant Park in 1897.

Before fighting in the war, Logan was a politician in southern Illinois who successfully pushed for a state law that imposed a 10-day prison sentence for freed Black slaves who entered the state. Preckwinkle called the so-called “Logan laws” a “despicable” part of his and the state’s history that we should not “gloss over.”

“We live in a complicated country with a complicated history. And we shouldn’t pretend that the people who we honored were perfect,” Preckwinkle said.

But Logan transformed himself, changing his views toward Black people after fighting alongside them in the war. He eventually switched political parties and supported President Abraham Lincoln’s reelection.

Logan is credited as the founder of Memorial Day by calling for a national “decoration day” to lay flowers on the graves of Civil War dead.

Preckwinkle’s father served in World War II. It was, she said, an “absolutely miserable experience for him” that he never talked about.

“But I am grateful to him for his service,” she said, “and to all who have worn a uniform in the United States; all, including General John Logan.”

The statue of Logan on horseback was among 41 reviewed by the Chicago Monuments Project, a city-organized effort to study statues and monuments across the city dedicated to historical figures and events with controversial places in history.

Air Force veteran Aaron Blaylock had not heard of Logan’s checkered history until attending Monday’s ceremony. Now, he said, he wants to read more about it.

Blaylock, 64, said he served as a mechanic of KC-135 tankers at the former O’Hare base from 1979 to 1984. Military service runs in his family. He has ancestors who served in almost all major wars in the last century, he said.

The Bronzeville resident said he spent the day reflecting on the sacrifice of other soldiers, and the call to service all veterans experience.

“If it was time to go to war, I would’ve went,” Blaylock said. “I would’ve made the ultimate sacrifice.”