Chattanooga will commemorate the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment with a special celebration on Sunday, Dec. 6, at 3 p.m. at the Walnut Street Bridge. The public is invited to participate in the celebration.
The remembrance will begin on the south side of the bridge with a performance by the Bethlehem-Wiley Choir under the direction of Pastor Willie Kitchens. William Davis Greene, II, will read the Emancipation Proclamation prior to participants walking across the bridge toward the North Shore, lead by freedom lanterns provided by the National Park Service and Chattanooga History Center. At the midpoint, the group will pause as Brainerd High and GPS students read the Thirteenth Amendment aloud.
The march will continue to the north end of the bridge where Dr. Carol Berz, Vice-Mayor, and Councilman Moses Freeman will join Mayor Andy Berke as he shares his vision regarding the progress made during the last 150 years and the work remaining to be done.
Following the ceremony at the bridge, interested citizens are invited to visit the site of Camp Contraband with NPS historian and educator, Chris Young and learn more about the significance of that site in Chattanooga’s history.
“It’s important that Chattanoogans pause on the 150th anniversary of the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to recall our city’s role in that quest for freedom and equality,” notes Linda Moss Mines, Chattanooga’s historian. “By mid-1862, as thousands of slaves fled to join the invading Northern armies, Chattanooga and the Tennessee River became a ‘gateway to freedom’. President Lincoln, witnessing the northward migration and bolstered by a Union victory at Antietam, issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863. While the Proclamation did not free a single slave, it was an important turning point in the war - - the fight became not just a battle to save the union but a crusade for human liberty.
"The President did not live to see the passage on the Thirteenth Amendment on Dec. 6, 1865, but the amendment abolished slavery and, with the ratification in 1866 of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment, guaranteed citizenship rights including the right to vote for former slaves and free men of color.”
Additional events are planned as a part of the commemoration including a National Park Service program, ‘The Death Blow is Final’, on Dec. 19 and the NAACP’s historic Jubilee Day celebration on Jan. 1, 2016.
For more information, contact Dionne Jennings at The Bessie, 266-8658, or Linda Moss Mines at lsmines@gps.edu.