Memorial Day
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On Memorial Day, 1983 in Liberty, Indiana, Joseph Alvin Sawyer,
Joseph Alvin Sawyer, Sr
Photo courtesy of the Sawyer family
Sr.gave the annual speech honoring veterans to citizens and veterans
assembled on the courthouse lawn in the center of town. Sawyer had been a
sergeant and paratrooper in the Army during World War II. He'd moved in
1948 to the small farming community in eastern Indiana to raise his
family. His wife and children watched with particular pride because he was
the first African-American veteran asked to speak on Memorial Day.
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