How Emancipation Day became part of Florida’s culture

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Emancipation Day marked the end of slavery in Florida, which happened before Juneteenth in Texas. This is how Emancipation Day has become a part of Florida culture.

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Slavery is an uncomfortable truth about America’s history, but it happened.

This is an announcement from a slave auction on Feb. 8, 1856.

The journey to freedom came through the Civil War from 1861 to 1865. The goal was to keep the United States together; the secondary impact was the end of slavery.

Even when slavery ended, it didn’t end for the entire country, as Jacksonville historian Adonnica Toler explained.

“It didn’t apply to the slave states that were still in the Union,” Toler said. “Their enslavement was legal. The Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery as we think in the United States.”

At the end of the Civil War in 1865, there were thousands of slaves in the North and millions in the South. After the war, the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment officially abolished slavery except as punishment for a crime, until the 13th Amendment was passed on Dec. 6, 1865.

At the end of the war, news spread quickly that slavery had ended. African Americans throughout the North held meetings and church services on Jan. 1, 1863, to celebrate the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation.

“What many people don’t know is that it was actually read on that day here in Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Key West, Florida, and Pensacola because those cities were controlled by the Union Army,” Toler said.

The Emancipation Proclamation Association was formed by Duval’s beloved Eartha White.

Terrell Walker reenacted Abraham Lincoln’s announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation at Second Baptist Church in 1980.

The commemoration was sometimes an opportunity to discuss ways to improve the Black community.

A photo from 1995 at the Church of God Sanctuary of Praise shows William H. Randall presenting the Black Community Renaissance Plan, which would revitalize I-95 and Golfair Boulevard.

And now, Emancipation Proclamation Day has grown beyond the Black community and churches to be acknowledged by the entire community.

For 162 years, a celebration of freedom has continued.

Watch “Tracing the Roots: The Story of Juneteenth” on News4JAX or News4JAX+ at 7 p.m.