"Local news worth reading" — The New York Times
SUBSCRIBE
The independent voice for West Orange County news
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, declaring that all who were enslaved within the Confederacy were free.
However, states learned this news at different times. It wasn’t until May 20, 1865, when Union soldiers arrived in Tallahassee to take control of the city, that enslaved people here got their freedom.
Florida’s legislature had voted unanimously in 1861 to secede, making it the third state to leave the Union after South Carolina and Mississippi. Of the 140,124 residents in Florida at the time, 3.6 percent enslaved 44 percent of the population.
But on May 20, 1865, Union Brig. Gen. Edward M. McCook stood on the steps of Knott House in Tallahassee and read out the Emancipation Proclamation, affirming that all held in bondage “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”
While not as widely celebrated as Juneteenth — which marks June 19, 1865, as the day the last city in the "rebellious states," Galveston, Texas, was informed its enslaved population was free — Emancipation Day has been commemorated in Florida since its first anniversary in 1866.
Knott House, now a museum, hosts events. And one town in Tallahassee has been throwing an Emancipation Day potluck picnic, featuring poetry readings, drum performances, maypole dances and softball games since 1924. Some families have attended for decades.
Closer to home, Apopka is hosting a family friendly May 20 Emancipation Day party in Alonzo Williams Park, 6 to 9 p.m., featuring a lineup of entertainers, headlined by Carmen Harrell, plus kids activities, crafts and vendors.
Still not an official state holiday, Emancipation Day received its first municipal recognition in 2020 when Leon County became the first county in the state to recognize May 20 as Emancipation Day; Tallahassee became the first city to do the honors the same year.
In 2021, nine of Orange County’s 14 municipalities, including Winter Garden and Ocoee, issued proclamations commemorating Emancipation Day. Neither city, nor the towns of Oakland or Windermere have issued such a proclamation this year.
Emancipation Day supporters, like historian Althemese Barnes, founder of the John G. Riley Center, a museum of Black history in Tallahassee, have campaigned against legislation to make Juneteenth a Florida holiday and lobbied to make Emancipation Day a state holiday instead. Barnes maintained that Emancipation Day was a more accurate reflection of Florida history since June 19, 1865, marked a moment of Texas history.
Juneteenth has since evolved to reflect a general sense of Black independence, and former President Joe Biden made it a national holiday in 2021.
