Toccoa Group Hosts Emancipation Proclamation Event Monday

The Toccoa Improvement Association is hosting an event celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation.

According to Program Chair Yvette Green, the event will be held on January 2, at 11:50 a.m. at Friendship Baptist Church, located at 244 South Sage Street in Toccoa.

She says the Emancipation Proclamation program is an annual event.

“The Emancipation Proclamation is an annual event, sponsored by the Toccoa Improvement Association. It’s been conducted by the Toccoa Improvement Association for many, many years. It’s in commemoration of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation which took place on January 1, 1863, by Abraham Lincoln and it was a proclamation that freed all the enslaved people in the southern states of the United States,” she said.

She says the program will include the reading of the proclamation along with some other planned activities.“We give scholarships every year. A lot of the young people who have received scholarship money who are college students and college graduates will be participating. Rev. Denise Freeman will be our keynote speaker this year. It does involve the reading of the proclamation. Our song selection will be done by some of our college graduates and scholarship winners,” she said.

She says everyone is invited to attend the event.

If you are unable to attend the event in person, or stream the event on the Toccoa Improvement Association’s Facebook, 93.1 FM and AM 630 WNEG will broadcast a recording of the event on January 4.

Again, the Emancipation Proclamation Program will start at 11:50 a.m. on January 2 at Friendship Baptist Church.