Vietnam Vets honor Rockland's black soldiers

Cemeteries, Mount Moor Cemetery, West Nyack

1990-02-05

ROCKLAND BRIEFS
Jerry Donnellan

Vietnam vets honor Rockland's black soldiers

WEST NYACK — The local chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America will honor black veterans from Rockland on Sunday in recognition of Black History Month.

At 1 p.m. at Mount Moor Cemetery, the veterans will dedicate
a monument with full military honors to World War I veteran Hezekiah Easter Sr., father of former county Legislator Hezekiah Easter. A color guard will also fire a rifle salute in honor of Easter, who was the last person to be buried in the
cemetery.

A Civil War re-enactment group in full military uniform will also fire a salute to honor Lafayette Logan, who is also buried at Mount Moor. Logan, a Nyack native, was a member of the 54th Massachusetts Colored Regiment.

"Glory," a movie now showing in local theaters, is based on the story of the 54th regiment, which led the charge of Fort Wagner during the Civil War.

Jerry Donnellan, president of the Rockland chapter of Vietnam
Veterans of America, said the regiment originated in
Massachusetts, but picked up volunteers as it marched south during the war.

Donnellan said the group began honoring the black veterans last year by cleaning up Mount Moor Cemetery.

"Up until the end of the second World War, black troops and soldiers were still segregated," Donnellan said. "We wanted to say to people, 'Listen, these guys suffered equally as much as the white soldiers did.'"

Former President Harry Truman signed a regulation integrating the troops in 1948, Donnellan said.

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