Video: MSMS Students Lead Eight O’ May Service

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COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) — Students from the Mississippi School for Math and Science led a community-wide Eighth O’ May celebration Thursday. May Eighth is recognized locally as Emancipation Day. It was on this day in 1865 that word of the end of the Civil War, and Freedom reached the African American community in Columbus. Today’s celebration featured the MSMS Voices in Harmony choir. Organizers feel that the day should have meaning for the whole community.

“Well, this is not White History or Black History; it’s our History,” said MSMS teacher, Chuck Yarborough. “And the story of late 19th Century African American experience is one of overcoming difficulties. And to my thinking there are a lot of lessons for the students to learn, but also for the broader community.”

As part of the program, students from the African American History class presented the lives of prominent citizens buried in Columbus’ historic Sandfield Cemetery.