Alabama’s capital city starts new year with Emancipation Day

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – Alabama’s capital city is marking the new year by celebrating Emancipation Day.

On Jan. 1, 1866, Montgomery began recognizing the Emancipation Proclamation, signed three years earlier by President Abraham Lincoln to declare freedom for “all persons held as slaves.”

The Montgomery Advertiser reports that Selma Mayor Darrio Melton is speaking Tuesday at an event hosted by the Emancipation Association of Montgomery.

The group’s president, Richard Bailey, says the event highlights the significance of emancipation.

Three community fixtures are being honored.

Henry Orum was a track star at the University of Alabama and has spent decades teaching special needs students in Montgomery Public Schools.

Delta Sigma Theta sorority often organizes debates and get-out-the-vote efforts for elections.

F.D. Reese was the architect of the Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march. He died in 2018.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)