Richmond's Emancipation Day
On March 19, 1866, two weeks before Richmond's first Emancipation Day celebration, a young school teacher who had traveled to Richmond to educate former slaves wrote the following to her family in Brooklyn, NY:
"The colored people want to celebrate the anniversary of the fall of Richmond, because it is their Independence Day. They are told that if the celebrate it at all it shall be with blood. One of the young men says he shall he will celebrate it, if he does it alone. What do you think I should advise him? Of course I hold it to be their right to celebrate their freedom, and I don't like to see them cowed down by the whites. Yet I don't like to risk bloodshed, though I seriously believe that more blood will have to be shed before these people will be free." (Letter reproduced in the New York Tribune, March 30, 1866)
In the years following the Civil War, the African American population of Richmond celebrated each April 3rd as Emancipation Day. The date marked the anniversary of the fall of the Confederate capitol, and subsequently, the end to slavery in Richmond and its surroundings. The events were massive. Long parades lines were headed by richly regaled black militia regiments followed by members of the African American political societies, aid societies and church organizations. The procession marched the entire length of the city -- up Broad Street and down Main Street -- until it concluded at the capitol grounds. There -- at the seat of government in the very state were slavery began -- large crowds gather around Washington's monument to hear orators champion the cause of civil rights, black advancement and racial equality.
Initially, the reaction of many white Richmonders was one of condemnation, including threats of violence -- as demonstrated in the young teacher's letter home. When an African American church was burned on the eve of the first Emancipation Day, it was perceived as an act of intimidation. But the threats failed to deter the celebration. In time even the Richmond Dispatch conceded that it was a celebration of freedom and not of Confederate defeat. In later years, the parades and celebrations continued, but the speechmaking no longer took place on the capitol grounds (that ended when Federal troops left Richmond). By the 1890s, there were efforts to change the observance date because African Americans across the state had experienced freedom at different times, and there was pressure to create a uniform celebration. Yet, in Richmond, large crowds continued to gather for an April 3rd observance as late as the 1910s.
Richmond's Emancipation Day was more than a celebration. It was a bold assertion of the right to public space and freedom of expression, sending the message that the city's black population took their freedom seriously. Yet, this once prominent part of Richmond's identity has fallen out of our public memory. Efforts are currently underway for the city of Richmond to officially recognize April 3rd as "Richmond's Emancipation Day." For more information contact Michael Rawls at rawlsmm@vcu.edu. (Thanks to Ray Bonis for providing New York Tribune article).
--Michael Rawls, Admin. Office Specialist - VCU Libraries