Local church organizations, civic groups and the Effingham County Branch NAACP all are set to participate in the annual celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation on New Years’ Day.
The 2023 celebration will take place 3 p.m. Sunday, January 1 at St. Mark Baptist Church, 122 Second Street in Clyo. The event brings back a tradition whereby the Emancipation Proclamation was acclaimed annually on January 1 at different churches in the Effingham County community on a rotating basis.
For the last two years, in deference to the coronavirus pandemic, the celebration took place as a drive-in, stay-in-your car event at Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Association in Guyton.
The tradition returns on Sunday.
The Honorable Dr. Otis S. Johnson, who served as Mayor of Savannah from 2004 to 2012, will be the primary speaker, Mayor Johnson has been a renowned public servant and educator for decades.
Throughout the United States, community organizations and civil rights’ groups mark President Abraham Lincoln’s issuance of an executive order – the Emancipation Proclamation – which stated on January 1, 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, that all slaves in the rebellious states of the Confederacy shall “henceforth, and, forever, be free.”
The executive order served as a motivating force, proclaiming that the abolition of slavery was, indeed, one of the goals of the Union’s forces. At that time, some doubted that the abolition of slavery was a real goal of the Union in the Civil War.
In truth, however, it was not until the passage of the United States Constitution’s Thirteenth Amendment, which had to be ratified by three-quarters of the states, took place on December 18, 1865, that the abolition of slavery became a reality. The Thirteenth Amendment stated, in part, that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude... shall exist.”
A full agenda of activities and speakers, in addition to Mayor Johnson, will be scheduled, including the installation of officers for the Effingham County Branch NAACP, who begin their two-year terms on January 1.
