G.A.R.

The Grand Army of the Republic. An organization of Civil War veterans from the Union Army (the North). The G.A.R. was one of America's first veterans’ lobbyist groups and advocated for pensions and Negro rights. In the "June 2, 1910" (Quentin) chapter of TSAF, the Deacon at Harvard is a member of the G.A.R. By 1910, the G.A.R.’s members would have been in their 70’s and 80’s. Decoration Day was the original name for Memorial Day.

“...I remembered where I had last seen the Deacon. It was on Decoration Day, in a G.A.R. uniform, in the middle of the parade. If you waited long enough on any corner you would see him in whatever parade came along...the last time was the G.A.R. one, because Shreve said: ‘There now. Just look at what your grandpa did to that poor old nigger.’ ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Now he can spend day after day marching in parades. If it hadn’t been for my grandfather, he’d have to work like whitefolks.’” -- TSAF, 82.

[Casey Levinson]