Decoration Day

Red, white & blue

Rhode Island made Memorial Day-- not Decoration Day which was originally honored soldiers killed in the Civil War and was observed only in the northern states-- a legal holiday in 1874. By 1910 all states and territories had done likewise except Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. [According to my crappy old Encyclopedia Britannica (1962) whose entry for "Memorial Day" refers me to the entry on Decoration Day.]