Memorial Day, an American national holiday dedicated to the memory of fallen US soldiers, is celebrated on the last Monday of May. Its beginnings however, started on the first day of May in 1865, when by a group of newly liberated Blacks in Charleston, South Carolina placed flowers on the unmarked graves of captured Union soldiers and held a parade to honor the dead.

• To learn more about what was originally known as "Decoration Day", check out the links to sources below:

• https://www.history.com/news/memorial-day-civil-war-slavery-charleston

• https://www.lx.com/black-legacy/dont-overlook-memorial-days-black-southern-roots/53453/

• https://www.live5news.com/2020/02/18/charleston-claims-first-memorial-day-celebration-with-african-americans-playing-significant-role/

• https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2022/05/28/freed-slaves-started-first-memorial-day-in-the-us/

• https://aaregistry.org/story/the-first-american-memorial-day-is-commemorated/

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Born in 1879, Mary Eliza Mahoney worked hard for nearly two decades to earn her nursing license, overcoming discrimination to become the first African American person to do so in the United States. To learn more about Boston-born and based Mahoney, read Mary Eliza Mahoney and the Legacy of African-American Nurses, watch a short bio on YouTube or check out the links to more sources below.

Sources:

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mary-mahoney

https://www.essence.com/black-history-month-2019/mary-eliza-mahoney-the-first-black-nurse/

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/19/obituaries/mary-eliza-mahoney-overlooked.html

https://nursing-theory.org/famous-nurses/Mary-Mahoney.php

https://www.biography.com/activist/mary-mahoney

http://ojin.nursingworld.org/FunctionalMenuCategories/AboutANA/Honoring-Nurses/NationalAwardsProgram/HallofFame/19761982/mahome5552.html

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The first African American woman to earn a doctorate at M.I.T., Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson is responsible for the major advances in telecommunications research that led to the invention of the touch-tone phone, portable fax, fiber optic cables, solar cells, call waiting and caller ID.

To learn more about the current president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the oldest technological research university in the U.S., check out the links to sources below:

Strong Force: The Story of Physicist Shirley Ann Jackson

https://president.rpi.edu/president-biography

https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/shirley-ann-jackson/

https://www.news10.com/news/local-news/dr-shirley-ann-jackson-a-lifetime-shattering-glass-ceilings-in-math-and-science-for-black-women/

https://youtu.be/mKAgAdHaJw0 (National Medal of Science bio)

https://youtu.be/0CYQAQ1EPSo (Storied Women of MIT)

https://youtu.be/ATcTENr07U8 (An evening with Dr. Jackson NSTMF)

https://youtu.be/xvGPPE-09OE (Brown University Department of Physics bio)

If you like these Daily Drops, follow us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.