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Home > Entertainment > Emancipation Day at Carver
Emancipation Day Celebration is Sept. 20 -- Poster courtesy Purcvellville Preservation Association

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Emancipation Day at Carver

Entertainment
By Shannon Sollinger
Source: Loudoun Times-Mirror
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 2008
UPDATED THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 2008

Watch nights and emancipation: President Lincoln issued an executive order, the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, on Sept. 22, 1882. In it he warned that in states (and in some cases, counties) still in rebellion against the Union, all slaves would be freed 100 days later, on Jan. 1, 1863.

In her account of the association, Elaine Thompson, of Hamilton, recounts the "watch night" observance still practiced in many African American churches.

African Americans, enslaved and free, gathered in their churches on Dec. 31, 1862, to pray, and to wait for word that Lincoln had kept his promise, Thompson said. He did, and by the end of the war, all slaves were freed, at least officially, not just those in slave states.

The association that formed in Hamilton in 1890 celebrated that day of freedom. Its mission also was to cultivate "good fellowship; to work for the betterment of the race, educationally, morally and materially."

For many of those years, into the 1960s and 1970s, African Americans in Loudoun couldn't participate on school and community sports teams and take part in community entertainments. The Emancipation Grounds, with its pavilion and playing fields, gave Loudoun's African American community a place to be a community.

Free at last Emancipation Day Celebration is back: From 1890, when the Loudoun County Emancipation Association was formed in Hamilton, until 1967, when it faded into disuse, Loudoun's first countywide African American organization celebrated Sept. 22 every year.

Historically, the day celebrating President Abraham Lincoln's preliminary Emancipation Proclamation included parades, memorial services, pageants, musical performances, games and vendors.

It's back, thanks to the hard work of community members and support from the Town of Purcellville, the county and a slew of community organizations.

More than 20 local organizations will set up booths in and around the Carver Center.

Elaine Thompson, of Hamilton, will welcome guests at the Carver Center precisely at 10 a.m., with a history of the association. Her welcome is doubly fitting ?she authored a history of the association, "In the Watchfires: the Loudoun County Emancipation Association, 1890-1971." And her great-grandfather and grandfather helped found the association in 1890; her father Thomas E. Thompson Sr. was its last president; and her uncle, Charles Clark, is the last surviving member. At 101, he is Purcellville's oldest citizen.

Jim Brownell, president of the Purcellville Preservation Association, sponsor of the day, will assist Clark in the unveiling of the bronze Presidents' Plaque.

Other activities will include black history exhibits; an art show; a Buffalo soldier re-enactor; children's choirs; gospel, rap and other music; fair-type amusements for children and adults; crafts and refreshments; and a special presentation, "Sojourner Truth Speaks" by Alice McGill.

The ceremonial part of the day will last about an hour, Thompson said, and will be similar to those held in the association's heyday, when the Emancipation Day observances would attract thousands of celebrants.

A highlight of the day will be a presentation to the former Negro League baseball players from the Harrisburg (Pa.) Giants ?Willie Fordham, pitcher; Jim Weedon, outfield; Ed Nork, pitcher; and Bruno DiMartile, shortstop.

Membership in the association faded after World War II and then in reaction to the gains of the Civil Rights era. The last Emancipation Celebration -- until Sept. 22 last year -- was in 1967. In 1971, the land was sold.

The grounds of the association belong today to the Blue Ridge Bible Church, which has kept its pledge to honor the history and meaning of the property and the day it celebrates.




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