Florida Emancipation Day celebrated Saturday at Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center

Florida's Emancipation Day celebrated with a march in southeast Gainesville from Depot Park to the Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center on Saturday.

The march was part of the kick-off of the city of Gainesville's "Journey to Juneteenth" that will include events hosted by the city and others to recognize and celebrate Florida's Emancipation Day and Juneteenth.

Florida’s Emancipation Day is May 20 and is recognized as such because it was on that day in 1865 when Union Brigadier Gen. Edward M. McCook formally announced in Tallahassee that President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation. However, though the news was met with much jubilation and glee by formerly enslaved Africans, it came more than two years after it was officially declared by Lincoln.

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Six neighborhoods participated in the march on Saturday with residents from the Northwest Fifth Avenue, Lincoln Estates, Springhill, Sugarhill, Pleasant Street and Rochelle communities supporting the event.

“I hope they remember Florida Emancipation Day,” said Vivian Filer, chair of the CCMCC. “Anybody who received their freedom leaves room for celebration.”

Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward spoke during the event which also featured performances, vendors, businesses and community organizations.

An exhibit inside the museum curated by historian Melanie Barr was on display and featured Josiah T. Walls, Matthew M. Lewey and Black soldiers from Alachua County who fought in wars.

Walls was the first Black from Florida and one of the first Blacks in the United States to be elected to Congress during Reconstruction. He served in Congress from 1871-1876, and he also served four terms in the Florida Senate.

Lewey was a leader of the 1884 Independent Party, the 1905 Pensacola Street Car Boycott and the 1919-20 Florida Voter Registration Movement.

Other exhibits allowed attendees to learn about handweaving and quilt making.

After the march, there was a memorial for Black Union soldiers from Alachua County who fought in the Civil War.

Their names were placed on white crosses adjacent to the museum and were as follows: Morris Nevel, Joseph Thomas, Henry Green, Nathaniel Smith, William, Alberts, Harry Flowers, James Wallace, Charles Tyner, Simon Casson, Joseph Vanhorn, Oliver Waterson, August Robinson, James Middleton, George Valentine, John Brannan, John Alford, Douglass Taylor, Powell Branning, Joseph Brooks, Joseph Delk and Henry Gray.

“One of the favorite things I love is seeing people fascinated learning the truth about history,” said Deloris Rentz, CCMCC financial secretary and facilities manager. “When I ask people about May 20, some don’t know much about it.”

Rentz said teaching people the truth about the Emancipation Proclamation is important as well.

“People think everyone was free during the Emancipation Proclamation,” Rentz said. “It’s important to let people know it took some time. We live in a fast communications age where people get the information in minutes, but back then it took longer than that.”

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of the Civil War.

The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

Wayne Zelaya and Valjean Zelaya attended the event with their son, Joel.

The Harlem couple who now lives in Alachua said they traveled from the city to attend the celebration in Gainesville.

Wayne Zelaya said the celebration reminded him a lot about the Harlem festivities he was once involved with in New York.

“This was a beautiful event,” he said. “We looked at what they went through in order for us to be here. The fact that we are here now shows the strength and perseverance we have.”

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: March kicks off Florida Emancipation Day celebration in Gainesville