ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR) – On January 1, the Roanoke NAACP welcomed the new year by celebrating Jubilee Day. It’s a day that commemorates January 1, 1863. That’s when Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation into law.
Newly elected Roanoke City Mayor Joe Cobb joined other lawmakers, local civic leaders, and citizens at the Mount Zion AME Church in Star City to celebrate the occasion.
(Photo Credit: Dustin Hennessey)
“Happy Jubilee Day! We know that jubilee is a celebration of American emancipation and freedom. Acknowledging President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Declaring the freedom of the enslaved people of the confederate states,” said Cobb. “Freedom is not only a call to liberation of our past sins. Freedom is a call to liberation for our souls and our lives into the fullness of who we are called and meant to be. Not just as people, but as a city.”
(Photo Credit: Dustin Hennessey)
Because mass communication did not exist at the time, it took more than two years for word of the Emancipation Proclamation to make it across the country. Juneteenth is celebrated nationally on June 19, to mark the date in 1865 when word finally reached every.
“This jubilee day reminds us to celebrate. It reminds us we are free and reminds us we can stay free.” – Reverend Dr. Amy Christine Hodge/pastor, Mt. Zion AME Church