DeLand to celebrate Florida Emancipation Day with weekend festival
The African American Museum of the Arts in DeLand will celebrate Florida Emancipation Day this weekend with live entertainment and reenactments of historical events.
“This is our first time doing this festival,” said Mary Allen, executive director of the museum. “The main goal is for the African American Museum to preserve history. That’s why I decided to join in and help with this festival. Florida Emancipation Day is very important and significant to Florida history. Many people have no idea that Florida has its own Emancipation Day.”
On May 20, 1865, the Emancipation Proclamation was read on the steps of Knott House in Tallahassee by General Edward McCook, a Union cavalry general during the Civil War and governor of the territory of Colorado.
President Abraham Lincoln first issued the proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863.
Florida Emancipation Day is not to be confused with Juneteenth, a holiday that commemorates the announcement to abolish slavery in Galveston, Texas, also in 1865.
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The festival is free and open to the public. On Friday, festivities will kick off at 6 p.m. with a showing of the documentary “Freedom Drumming,” at the Noble "Thin Man" Watts Amphitheater located at 322 S. Clara Ave.
On Saturday and Sunday, the festival continues at the amphitheater. Festival hours on Saturday are 10 a.m.- 4 p.m., beginning with a reading of the Emancipation Proclamation and continuing with live entertainment. Sunday hours are 1-4 p.m.
“This is a moment for us to educate people about the importance of May 20, 1865,” said Allen. “We'll also have a reenactment of Frederick Douglass (as portrayed) by John H. Anderson Jr., who is well known throughout the state of Florida," she added.
For more information contact the African American Museum of Arts at 386-736-4004.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: DeLand to celebrate Florida Emancipation Day with weekend festival