A fully costumed reenactment of the Emancipation Proclamation will take place this Friday, Juneteenth, in Old Salem.
On May 21, 1865, at St. Philips Moravian Church in Salem, Chaplain Seth Clark of the Ohio 10th Cavalry declared all enslaved people within rebellious states shall be free.
On Friday, Salem Congregation Board of Trustees President Barry Self will reenact that reading. He’ll be accompanied by costumed actors singing hymns from the original program. Self says, there were more than 200 people in church on that fateful day and roughly 600 on the front lawn.
"'Shouts of 'You are free, you are free,' filled the church, following Reverend Clark's challenge to not be idle, but to grow and advance God's kingdom'," says Self. "'The freedmen prioritized education for their children and negotiated with the Moravian Church for land across the creek to build a school in 1867.'"
Five years later, the church sold lots for $10 to each of the freedmen in an area called Liberia. It later became known as Happy Hill, the first African American neighborhood in the towns of Winston and Salem.
The reenactment begins Friday at 7 p.m. at St. Philips Moravian Church, the oldest continuously operating African American church in North Carolina.