For decades after Freedom, African-Americans celebrated Emancipation Day — January 1 — with speeches, performances and communal meals. This torn New York Age article, published 4 January 1912, records the New Year’s Day observations of Wilson’s Non-Formal Club, which apparently catered to the city’s tiny black educated class.

Festivities included:

• a solo by Maggie Barnes,
• an address by pharmacist Darcy C. Yancey; and
• an informal oyster supper hosted by Dr. William and Mrs. Marie Person Mitchner. (Club officers included Rev. Halley B. Taylor, Rev. Robert N. Perry, Harvey G. Barnes, and Camillus L. Darden.)

[Charleston, South Carolina, still proudly carries on the tradition of Emancipation Day observations. For a fascinating account of the city’s celebrations, see https://charlestontimemachine.org/2017/12/28/emancipation-day-2018/ ]