In consideration of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the nation’s oldest continuous Emancipation Day parade will be held at 12:00 p.m. on Friday, January 1, 2021 as a virtual event.
The parade can be viewed at http://chsepa.wordpress.com.
The event, sponsored by the Charleston Emancipation Proclamation Association, is held annually in observance of the effective date of the Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. In part, the proclamation states that “all persons held as slaves within any state…shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”
Following the parade, viewers are invited to watch a virtual commemorative worship service that will be held at Charity Missionary Baptist Church by Reverend Nelson B. Rivers III, the church’s pastor and orator for the service.
For more information about the event, please contact Robert Crawford, Vice President of the Charleston Emancipation Proclamation Association, at 843-817-5976 or crawford.photos1@gmail.com.