Wilmington's First Public Emancipation Day Parade, January 1, 1866

January 1, 1866. It was the first Emancipation Day since the South lost the Civil War. It was the first to be celebrated since the ratification of 13th Amendment in December of 1865 formally abolished slavery. And it was the first to be publicly celebrated on the streets of Wilmington, North Carolina.

First page of Emancipation Proclamation
courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration 

Since there was no Black newspaper in the city in 1866, we’re dependent on the white press for our information. In many instances, the white newspapers did not report on events in the African American community at all. On January 1, 1866, the Wilmington Herald did report that an Emancipation celebration was in the works, but the editors saw fit not to celebrate, but to wax on about their belief in African Americans’ racial inferiority. According to their editorial, “If the object be to celebrate their emancipation from slavery it occurs to us that they might better make it an occasion of lamentation and sorrow. No event in the history of the African race on this continent has ever occurred so pregnant with evil to those most interested as this one event of their emancipation from slavery. It is the signal for the extirpation.”

 

Despite this racist coverage, we can use the Herald’s coverage to imagine the joy and hope that this first celebration may have brought to those who participated in the day’s festivities. The streets of Wilmington were filled with members of the Black community, both those in the official parade, and the sidewalks were described as “...a moving mass of dark colored humanity” and “..all ages and sexes, sizes and conditions, were represented.” The paper noted some of the banners in the parade:

Wilmington Herald, January 2, 1866

The procession began in the city, and the city’s newly-organized Black fire companies “were out in full force in their red shirts and other paraphernalia appertaining to their organizations.” 

African American firefighters, 19th century 

The procession ended up in Hilton Park, where speeches were given, by “Norton and several other colored orators.” 

The Herald admitted that the speeches “would have done credit to any man, white or black.”

This first public Emancipation Day celebration began a longstanding tradition of celebrating Black freedom. Black community members and their allies celebrated Emancipation throughout the 19th century. In January 1899, right after the White Supremacy Campaign and Massacre of November 1898, there was no Emancipation Parade. While a brief note in the Wilmington Messenger, just noted there was no parade, it's not hard to imagine that the violence and terror of those November days and nights left the community reeling, and in no mood to celebrate freedom when it was so clearly under direct attack.

 

Despite this missing year, the community once again celebrated Emancipation in 1900, and continued to do so in the 20th century.