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Page Number: 37.0

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AMERICAN LEGION v. AMERICAN HUMANIST ASSN. 

Opinion of the Court 

Black and White soldiers who had given their lives in the 
war;  and  despite  the  fact  that  Catholics  and  Baptists  at 
that  time  were  not  exactly  in  the  habit  of  participating 
together  in  ecumenical  services,  the  ceremony  dedicating 
the  Cross  began  with  an  invocation  by  a  Catholic  priest 
and  ended  with  a  benediction  by  a  Baptist  pastor.    App. 
1559–1569,  1373.    We  can  never  know  for  certain  what 
was  in  the  minds  of  those  responsible  for  the  memorial, 
but in light of what we know about this ceremony, we can 
perhaps make out a picture of a community that, at least 
for  the  moment,  was  united  by  grief  and  patriotism  and 
rose above the divisions of the day. 
  Finally,  it  is  surely  relevant  that  the  monument  com-
memorates the death of particular individuals.  It is natu-
ral  and  appropriate  for  those  seeking  to  honor  the  de-
ceased  to  invoke  the  symbols  that  signify  what  death 
meant  for  those  who  are  memorialized.    In  some  circum-
stances, the exclusion of any such recognition would make 
a memorial incomplete.  This well explains why Holocaust 
memorials  invariably  include  Stars  of  David  or  other 
symbols of Judaism.34  It explains why a new memorial to 
Native  American  veterans  in  Washington,  D. C.,  will 
portray  a  steel  circle  to  represent  “ ‘the  hole  in  the  sky 
where the creator lives.’ ”35  And this is why the memorial 
for soldiers from the Bladensburg community features the 
cross—the same symbol that marks the graves of so many 
of their comrades near the battlefields where they fell. 

—————— 

34 For  example,  the  South  Carolina  Holocaust  Memorial  depicts  a 
large  Star  of  David  “ ‘in  sacred  memory  of  the  six  million,’ ” 
see https://www.onecolumbiasc.com/public-art/south-carolina-holocaust-
memorial/,  and  the  Philadelphia  Monument  to  Six  Million  Jewish 
Martyrs  depicts  a  burning  bush,  Torah  scrolls,  and  a  blazing  men- 
orah,  see  https://www.associationforpublicart.org/artwork/monument-
to-six-million-jewish-martyrs/. 

35 Hedgpeth,  “A  Very  Deep  Kind  of  Patriotism”:  Memorial  to  Honor 
Native  American  Veterans  Is  Coming  to  the  Mall,  Washington  Post, 
Mar. 31, 2019.