Supreme Court to Hear Appeal as Humanists Fight to Destroy WWI Memorial Cross in Bladensburg

November 5, 2018

Left to right, Medal of Honor Marine recipient Captain Henry Lewis Hulbert and African-American soldier, Private John Henry Seaburn, Jr. are among the 49 names listed on the listed on the Bladensburg Memorial. Image courtesy: First Liberty Institute

By: Steve Warren

The US Supreme Court announced Monday that it will decide whether to reverse a lower court decision that could lead to the destruction of a World War I veterans memorial that is shaped in the form of a cross.

The memorial cross has stood since 1925 when it was dedicated to honor 49 Bladensburg, Maryland-area soldiers who were killed in action during the war. The memorial is located in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

The Gold-Star mothers who designed the memorial in 1919, chose a cross shape to recall the cross-shaped grave markers standing over the countless American graves on the war’s Western Front. One mother referred to the memorial as her son’s “gravestone.”

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