Monday is Confederate Memorial Day. Why does MS still celebrate it and what does it mean?

[Christopher Hitchens]

Full article from Clarion Ledger/Google News Feed:

Mississippi will celebrate Confederate Memorial Day soon. Only four states still honor the Civil War dead with a day off for public workers, though others still treat it as a holiday.

The Magnolia State takes it a step further and celebrates April as Confederate Heritage Month. Gov. Tate Reeves signed a proclamation on April 17, noting the war started this month in 1861. It was the deadliest conflict fought in the nation.

"Whereas, as we honor all who lost their lives in this war, it is important for all Americans to reflect upon our nation's past, to gain insight from our mistakes and successes, and to come to a full understanding that the lessons learned yesterday will carry us through tomorrow if we carefully and earnestly strive to understand and appreciate our heritage and our opportunities which lie before us," the proclamation reads.

Here's what you need to know about Confederate Memorial Day, when Mississippi celebrates, attempts to drop the holiday from the calendar and what other Confederate holidays the state celebrates.

What is Confederate Memorial Day?

Confederate Memorial Day was created in Georgia on April 26, 1866. It honored the deaths of Confederate soldiers on the first anniversary of the day that Confederate Gen. Joseph Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee to Union Gen. William Sherman at Bennett Place, North Carolina.

Many in the Confederacy felt that negotiation marked the end of the Civil War. Gen. Robert E. Lee had surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant two weeks earlier at Appomattox Court House, but Johnston stayed in the field with almost 90,000 soldiers.

The holiday spread to the other Confederate states. Some changed their celebration dates to something more locally significant.

When does Mississippi celebrate Confederate Memorial Day in 2025?

Public workers will get a state holiday on Monday, April 28.

Which states still honor Confederate Memorial Day? Are they all holidays?

Confederate Memorial Day is still celebrated across the South, though not all places treat it officially and give state workers the day off.

In Mississippi, it's an official state holiday on the last Monday in April.

In Alabama and Florida, it's on the fourth Monday in April. Alabama treats it as an official holiday.

Texas celebrates it as a state holiday on Jan. 19.

North and South Carolina celebrate on May 10, but state offices close only in South Carolina.



June 3 is when Kentucky and Tennessee honor the dead from the Civil War, and Tennessee calls it Confederate Decoration Day.

Does anyone want Mississippi to drop Confederate Memorial Day?

Yes. A bill to stop celebrating Confederate Memorial Day and designate June 19 as a Juneteenth Freedom Day died in committee in the 2025 legislative session. It was brought by state Sen. Derrick T. Simmons, District 12.



Simmons has introduced a bill to remove the Confederate holiday almost every year he's been in office. Last year, he said he's been hopeful the state is ready to make the change since lawmakers changed the state flag in 2020. The Confederate battle flag was replaced by a magnolia design with the words "In God We Trust."

What other Confederate holidays are still celebrated in Mississippi?

When a federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. was adopted in the 1980s, Mississippi and Alabama lawmakers opted to add it to an existing holiday honoring Lee. Many states in the South initially adopted this approach. Most, including Lee's home state of Virginia, have since dropped celebrating Lee, who was born on Jan. 19, 1807.

Attempts to separate the holidays through legislation have failed in committee. Mississippi State Rep. Kabir Karriem, D-Columbus, introduced bills in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

The only other state celebrating Robert E. Lee Day and King together is Alabama. Similar bills to separate the celebration of Lee or strike it from the state holiday calendar completely have also failed to pass.

Alabama also has a state holiday for Confederate President Jefferson Davis on the first Monday in June, but Mississippi pairs it with Memorial Day on the last Monday in May. (He was born June 3, 1808.)





Link: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2025/04/23/confederate-memorial-day-a-mississippi-holiday-some-want-to-drop-it/83144767007/

 

[Solomon Kane]

Honoring American war dead should not become a political fight. Typical woke bullshit.

 

[(G.O.A.T.) Tubemonkey]

Honoring American war dead should not become a political fight. Typical woke bullshit.

Don't mind @Christopher Hitchens they/them/it have a broomstick stuck far up their liberal ass and is in ecstasy.

 

[Fäthër Cörpsë]

what are your thoughts on this, Eric Blair? Since you posted the article you must have an opinion on it?

 

[djdeeds]

These publications are written by people who have intentions to try and change history. If they chip away little bit by bit, eventually the next generations will be oblivious to fact and only be raised on a falsely propagated narrative.

 

[GrizzlyRazorblades]

I can see Fort Sumter from the end of my neighborhood on James Island, SC., where the first shot of the Civil War was fired at. This yankee transplant says let them have it. Memorial Day was originally for commemorating soldiers who lost their lives during the Civil War, but has been hijacked to commemorate all those who died in all wars since. Confederate Memorial Day allows the day to be directed towards the Civil War.

 

[Christopher Hitchens]

Honoring American war dead should not become a political fight. Typical woke bullshit.

It’s not all woke bullshit. I don’t think confederate soldiers or generals should be honored or memorialized because their cause was not honorable.



They fought for one of the worst causes EVER fought for in modern history. Not just the preservation but the EXPANSION of human slavery, the holding people as property. This is nothing to honor or remember with pride.

To anticipate what you might say, which is the common soldier didn’t fight for that. First, a lot of the common soldiers did fight for slavery, but the ones that didn’t, I DONT CARE how they rationalized it to themselves. even if in their mind they didn’t fight for slavery they were fighting for a machine, for a government , for a system that was. The real heroes are the people in the confederate states who fought for the Union. Just as the real heroes in Germany in ww2 are the people who resisted Hitler, not served in his army.

So no we shouldn’t honor these men or have a day for them.

Also to anticipate something else you or others might say, which is to dismiss me as some California yankee lefty fag, well guess what:

My mom’s dad, my grandpa’s family, is from Louisiana. I think even he himself was born there. My Dad’s mom, my grandma, her parents are Grapes of Wrath okies from Arkansas and Oklahoma. I have done genealogy, and found out that those great grandparents have family further back from Virginia and other parts of the south.

So I certainly have southern blood in my veins and I must have confederate soldiers in my family. I am not proud of them, I have no desire to honor them for fighting or dying for such a horrible and unjust cause, I don’t want to build statues or memorials to them as if there is anything honorable in what they did.

I also have ancestors who fought for the Union and they are the ones I am proud of. They are ones I’d build memorials too and hang pictures of them in my wall in their uniform.

This is my position and to write it off as woke is ridiculous Solomon.

 

[Christopher Hitchens]

Don't mind @Christopher Hitchens they/them/it have a broomstick stuck far up their liberal ass and is in ecstasy.

Read what I said to Solomon my little fuck monkey

 

[Christopher Hitchens]

I can see Fort Sumter from the end of my neighborhood on James Island, SC., where the first shot of the Civil War was fired at. This yankee transplant says let them have it. Memorial Day was originally for commemorating soldiers who lost their lives during the Civil War, but has been hijacked to commemorate all those who died in all wars since. Confederate Memorial Day allows the day to be directed towards the Civil War.

That’s really cool, I’ve never been to the East coast, well I went to rehab in Georgia once but that doesn’t count. I’d love to see those historic sites. I disagree with your last sentence. It’s not “civil war” Memorial Day. It’s CONFEDERATE Memorial Day. For the reasons I explained to Solomon Kane I am against such a day. Check out my response to him cuz I don’t want to type it out again.

 

[Sabu]

Read what I said to Solomon my little fuck monkey

Lol at a jobless, retard that is a self admitted cocksucker calling someone "little". I've seen your photos Christopher Bitchens, you're a little cocksucker.

 

[Christopher Hitchens]

what are your thoughts on this, Eric Blair? Since you posted the article you must have an opinion on it?

Check out what I said to Solomon Kane. I explain I think very rationally why I am against celebrating such a holiday. I will respond to you if you have something to say. I’m open to an argument or just dialogue on this topic. I do sympathize with the people who really think confederate stuff is just about “southern pride” but I ultimately disagree big time.

 

[Christopher Hitchens]

Lol at a jobless, retard that is a self admitted cocksucker calling some "little". I've seen your photos Christopher Bitchens, you're a little cocksucker.

Idk if 5’9” is little but who cares. You are taking the word little too literally sabu. You have a literal mind though so I don’t blame you sweet pea.

 

[Sabu]

Idk if 5’9” is little but who cares. You are taking the word little too literally sabu. You have a literal mind though so I don’t blame you sweet pea.

You're a jobless, little cocksucker. Simple. Oh and retarded. As I know how much it "triggers" you retards when I call you dipshits retarded.

 

[Christopher Hitchens]

These publications are written by people who have intentions to try and change history. If they chip away little bit by bit, eventually the next generations will be oblivious to fact and only be raised on a falsely propagated narrative.

I think that there are some, on the left AS WELL AS THE RIGHT, who want to change or abolish history. Either in books or in art or in statues and names. But I’m sorry that doesn’t fit here. Memorials honoring the confederacy have NOTHING to do with history. They are political statements ok. I’m against the confederacy, they fought for one of the worst causes ever fought for in modern human history ok. I’m not for memorializing them.

 

[Christopher Hitchens]

You're a jobless, little cocksucker. Simple. Oh and retarded.

You’re very sweet to say so. Thanks honey 🥰

 

[Sabu]

You’re very sweet to say so. Thanks honey 🥰

You're barking up the wrong tree fagmo. I know you're human pussy repellent but I'm not into guys so stop with your advances.

 

[Fäthër Cörpsë]

Check out what I said to Solomon Kane. I explain I think very rationally why I am against celebrating such a holiday. I will respond to you if you have something to say. I’m open to an argument or just dialogue on this topic. I do sympathize with the people who really think confederate stuff is just about “southern pride” but I ultimately disagree big time.

Vast majority of southerners were not slave owners, but they were proud to be southern. And they did not want some other state of ppl telling them that 1. Their way of life for generations, is wrong 2. Forced to change.

The vast majority fought for their state, their town, their family’s pride.

The south did not have the influx of Irish and German immigrants to fill their ranks, nor the industry to produce war material. That they fought for what they believed in IS honorable.

 

[(G.O.A.T.) Tubemonkey]

You're barking up the wrong tree fagmo. I know you're human pussy repellent but I'm not into guys so stop with your advances.

He and @JawshSB should get a room. Two admitted cocksuckers.

 

[Sabu]

He and @JawshSB should get a room. Two admitted cocksuckers.

They can add titshit and fag bacon to the mix. 4 way of retarded homosexual horse shit.

 

[Mr. Meat Sled]

Jeb Stuart is one of Planet Earths most bad assed cavalry officers. He was fucking Cossack Comanche Buzgashi badass.