Audio cut during veteran’s speech on Black people’s role in Memorial Day at Hudson ceremony

It was no audio glitch. It was an audio cut during a veteran’s speech. It was a normal Memorial Day observance in Hudson on Monday. Until it wasn’t. Organizers of a Memorial Day ceremony turned off a speaker’s microphone when the former U.S. Army officer began talking about how freed Black slaves had honored fallen soldiers soon after the Civil War. Retired Army Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter tells 3News he thought it was an audio glitch at first, but it was no glitch at all. His microphone was purposely muted for several minutes. Kemter said he included the story in his speech because he wanted to share the history of how Memorial Day originated. But organizers of the ceremony said that part of the speech was not relevant to the program’s theme of honoring the city’s veterans. Cindy Suchan, chair of the Memorial Day parade committee and president of the Hudson American Legion Auxiliary, says it was either her or Jim Garrison, adjutant of the American Legion Post 464, who turned down the audio. The Ohio Ameri