Emancipation Day Celebrations

Emancipation Day Celebrations

President Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. For many years afterward, in or around September, African Americans would congregate at parks and other community spaces for Emancipation Day celebrations. These celebrations were held in Champaign, Homer, Tolono, Sidney, and other parts of Champaign County. Celebrations often included food, music, and dancing.

Continue Reading History Show Less

On July 22, 1895, a meeting was held at Bethel AME Church to create a permanent organization to plan Emancipation Day celebrations in September. Edward Ballenger served as President, Albert Lee served as Secretary, and George Riley served as Corresponding Secretary. That August, the Honorable Joseph G. Cannon was selected as the first speaker at the newly organized Emancipation Celebration.

The celebration was a success. The day started with people arriving from Peoria, Danville, Paris (Illinois), Indianapolis, and Terre Haute. A parade kicked off from Bethel AME Church and went through the downtowns of both Champaign and Urbana, ending at fairgrounds between Second and Third Streets off Daniel Avenue. Festivities continued that afternoon with a Drill Corps competition, a bicycle race with a prize of $18 (approximately $626.98 in 2022 dollars), and a speech by Congressman Joseph Gurney “Uncle Joe” Cannon, who was soon to become Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (1903–1911). Reporters wrote that Congressman Cannon, “created more enthusiasm, more consideration on the part of whites for blacks, and more ambition among the colored people…to occupy the higher ground that God intends them to occupy.”

The evening’s ball was held at Eichberg’s Hall, located at 22 E. Main Street in Champaign. Finally, an evening meeting at Barrett Hall ended the day’s events, over which Reverend P. M. Lewis, pastor of Bethel AME Church, presided. The evening address was delivered by Reverend T. W. Henderson of Indianapolis, and William Helm of Second Baptist Church (now Salem Baptist Church) closed the meeting.

Additional Emancipation Day Celebrations

1900: Reverend Brown of Salem Baptist Church organized an Emancipation Day celebration which was officiated by W. P. McAllister and held in West Side Park (West End Park).

1904: An Emancipation Day celebration was held, including a parade, speeches, bar-b-que, and performance by the Knights of Pythias’ Band.

1908: An Emancipation Day celebration was observed during the evening of Champaign in Imperial Hall. Seventy-five couples attended. The hall was located in the Imperial Building at the northwestern corner of Tyler and Walnut Streets in Champaign. Since the late 1800s, many African American civic and social organizations met in the hall.

1915: Salem Baptist, Bethel AME, and Methodist Episcopal churches united to plan the September 22 celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation. A parade was planned, and each church chose a candidate for Queen of the Emancipation. They were: Mrs. Hattie Martin (Salem Baptist); Miss Allie Moore (Bethel AME); and Mrs. Jeptha Tisdale (Methodist Episcopal). The woman who received the largest number of votes would be crowned as Queen. That same year, Champaign Mayor E. S. Swigart issued an Emancipation Day proclamation, calling on all residents to do two things: (1) Grant a holiday to all African Americans working for them, if possible; and (2) Display the stars and stripes from their homes and places of business on the day of the celebration.

1916: An Emancipation Celebration Committee was announced as including Solomon T. Clanton (President); Edward G. Jackson (Vice President); R. B. Alexander (Secretary); and Archie Penney (Treasurer). They set September 22 as the date, and the Champaign County Fairgrounds as the location, for the celebration. It was a success. The program consisted of songs, an invocation, a reading of the Gettysburg Address and Emancipation Proclamation, reminisces by Elder John Rivers on “The Evils of Slavery” and Dr. Johnson (Post Commander of the GAR) on “The Civil War GAR (Grand Army of the Republic).” It ended with an address by Congressman William B. McKinley. Representatives of Champaign and Urbana’s mayors were present.

1920: Salem Baptist Church held an Emancipation Proclamation Day program on January 1.

1923: Salem Baptist Church and Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church of Champaign held a joint observance of Emancipation Day at Salem. Reverend R. A. Hayden was the presiding pastor.

SOURCES:

Champaign County News, July 2, 1895, pg. 1 and August 10, 1895, pg. 12

Article:  “It Is Over: Emancipation Exercises in the Twin Cities,” Champaign County News, September 28, 1895, pg. 9

Article: “Was a Howling Success,” Champaign County News, September 22, 1900, pg. 2

Article: “Colored People Celebrate.” Urbana Courier, September 22, 1904, pg. 1

Article: Champaign County News, September 26, 1908, pg. 9

Article: Champaign County News, August 11, 1915, pg. 2

Champaign County News, September 18, 1915, pg. 8

Article: Urbana Courier, September1, 1916, pg. 5

Article:  “Negro Day Success,” Champaign County News, September 23, 1916, pg. 1

Article: Urbana Courier, January 2, 1923, pg. 2

Decade:

1860-1869

Location(s):

  • Champaign, Illinois
  • Urbana, Illinois
View on the map

Additional Champaign Trail Sites

Business

North First Street Corridor, Champaign

North First Street Corridor is the oldest business district in Champaign, dating to the 1850s. A triangular area that originally included East Main Street, University Avenue, and the first two blocks of North First Street, it bordered an integrated working-class neighborhood called Germantown.

View on the map

Community

Sergeant Allen A. Rivers, Sr.

Allen A. Rivers, Sr. was hired as the first and, at the time, only African American in the Champaign Police Department on August 1, 1935. He worked for 33 years as a policeman rising from a “beat cop” to a motorcycle cop, and then to Sergeant before retiring. He was known as never having to fire his gun in pursuit of a criminal or during an arrest.

View on the map

Military

William F. Earnest American Legion Post 559

African Americans from Champaign County fought bravely, and died, in World War I. Those who served did so with courage, honor, and distinction. Many of those who returned home found community and services at the William F. Earnest American Legion Post 559. Originally located at Fifth and Hill Streets, the Post is now located at 704 N. Hickory in Champaign. It was chartered in 1932 by African American World War I veterans and named for a fallen comrade who was a University of Illinois student-athlete from Homer, Illinois. Earnest served as a sergeant in the all-Black 370th Infantry Regiment from Illinois. One of the columns at Memorial Stadium also bears his name. The founding members of Post 559 were Clifford Caldwell, Robert H. Earnest (brother of William F. Earnest), Dr. L.P. Diffay, Dr. Henry Ellis, Alvin Foxwell, Raymond Hines, Thomas Macklin, Cecil D. Nelson, and George Ray.

View on the map

Education

Lawhead School

Harriet J. Lawhead School, built in 1907, was a small, four-room building. During its early years, it served German and Italian immigrants in the neighborhood. As African Americans moved into the area, the school was integrated for a period of time, but by the 1940s it was attended only by Black students. White children who lived in the area were sent to Columbia School. During World War II, two rooms in the basement of the school were used as a Servicemen’s Club, organized by community members for African American soldiers who were not welcomed in the USO at Chanute Field. The school was closed in 1952, prior to the opening of the new Booker T. Washington School and razed in 1990. It is now a parking lot.

View on the map
African American Civil War Burials and Mt. Hope Cemetery

Located west of Memorial Stadium at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Mount Hope Cemetery (611 E. Pennsylvania Ave., Champaign, IL) was plotted and internment began in 1856. Sitting on the dividing line between the two cities, it’s the oldest operating cemetery in Champaign-Urbana. Throughout its 150 years, it has been the final resting place for many local African Americans and their families, including most of those who fought in the Civil War. The majority of these veterans were buried in what was the Grand Army of the Republic’s (G.A.R.) section, now known as the “old” veteran's section, found as you enter the cemetery. It is represented by the Civil War Memorial and a 32-pound canon built in 1851. However, many of the original markers no longer exist for many of these and other Civil War veterans, or they were moved to other locations in the cemetery.

African Americans veterans from various wars including World War I and II are also buried in this section.

View on the map

Community

Sports & Recreation

Skelton Park

Skelton Park, a pocket park at the corner of N. First Street and E. Washington Street, is designed to pay homage to Champaign County's history of locally, nationally, and internationally recognized African American musicians.

View on the map