Emancipation Day, Homecoming, Park Day in Missouri before Juneteenth was celebrated

Celebrations of freedom for enslaved Black people have been held around Missouri under different names and on different dates since they gained their freedom.

Now, with the federal Juneteenth holiday established as a national celebration, the State Historical Society of Missouri has established an online "Emancipation Day in the Ozarks" interactive map of the celebrations around the state since the Civil War.

Emancipation Day is one term used for the Missouri celebrations, said Sean Rost, oral historian and project lead for the State Historical Society. There also has been Homecoming and Park Day.

The most common date for the celebrations has been Aug. 4. Another common date has been Sept. 22, the anniversary of the date Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. Some celebrations have been in January, near the Jan. 1 date the proclamation went into effect, Rost said.

Juneteenth is a recent development for Missouri, he said.

The Aug. 4 date is a month removed from Independence Day and near the anniversary of the 1834 emancipation of enslaved people in the British empire.

It also may reflect the sentiment of Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass in his July 5, 1852, speech, "What, to the slave, is the Fourth of July."

"What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?" his speech reads. "I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelly to which he is the constant victim.

"To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages."

The interactive map is the first part of initiative supported by an American Rescue Plan Act grant awarded through the National Endowment for the Humanities and Missouri Humanities Council.

"It really dates back to last summer when congress and President Joe Biden established Juneteenth as a national holiday," Rost said was the genesis of the interactive map.

The society also is producing oral histories of Black residents, with public programs planned in late summer or early fall, Rost said. There will be African American heritage exhibits as well, including a big one planned for February 2023 at the Center for Missouri Studies, the society's home base.

The map examines several events and locations, Rost said.

"It takes the viewers through the various celebrations," Rost said. "It takes the viewers to the communities where the celebrations occurred."

The map includes an excerpt from the Springfield Leader on Aug. 2, 1893, noting a visit by "the hon. Fred Douglass, leader of the colored race," who would be speaking at the zoo gardens and the Grand Opera House.

"Douglass is an orator worth hearing, and many whites will take advantage of the opportunity to hear him," the excerpt reads.

Park Day is returning to Springfield this year after being canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic the past few years, Rost said.

"It's a day that people come back to Springfield from outside the community," Rost said.

The Springfield celebration has included parades, beauty pageants, speakers, sporting events and food, he said.

There's a July 20, 1950, excerpt from the Henry County Democrat in Clinton.

"The annual Emancipation Day picnic, celebrating the famous Lincoln proclamation of 1864 which declared slaves free citizens, will be held for two days beginning August 4th," the excerpt reads. "Melvin Brame and Mort Cooper, officials in charge of the event, announced that facilities will be set-up on the northern part of Main Street. The picnic food will consist of fried chicken and fish. A dance is scheduled for the 4th with an orchestra playing at Legion Building in City Park."

And from the Aug. 5, 1944, Joplin Globe:

"Negroes from Springfield and Negro soldiers from Camp Crowder were special guests yesterday and last night at an annual Emancipation Day celebration in Ewert Park. Baseball games and swimming events were a feature of the afternoon program. A band from Springfield played at intervals during the day. Music was provided last night for dancing.

"Soldiers were feted to a watermelon feast. Picnic meals were enjoyed at noon and last night. Barbecued meats were prepared at the park and other foods sold at concession stands."

Gary Kremer, executive director of the State Historical Society of Missouri, will talk on the topic at 3 p.m. Sunday at Brown's Chapel in Arrow Rock.

"Celebrating Freedom in Missouri: From Emancipation Day to Juneteenth" is the title of Kremer's speech.

Roger McKinney is the education reporter for the Tribune. You can reach him at rmckinney@columbiatribune.com or 573-815-1719. He's on Twitter at @rmckinney9

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: State Historical Society of Missouri offers interactive map of events