Gallipolis, OH

Celebrating Freedom in Gallipolis, Ohio

Freedom has been celebrated in Gallia County, Ohio, for 137 years and has special meaning to the celebrants—many of whom are descendents of freed, runaway, and emancipated slaves.

Each September since 1863, African-Americans have gathered in Gallipolis (pop. 4,180) to commemorate the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln on Sept. 22, 1862. It declared slaves in Confederate-held territory “forever free.”

The Emancipation, as the celebration is commonly called, is reported to be the longest continuous running event of its kind in the United States. It features speeches of remembrance and inspiration, gospel and folk music—and most of all, a place for people to come together to recall their common ancestry. This year’s event is scheduled Sept. 22-23.

“It’s like what Marcus Garvey said, ‘A people without a knowledge of their past is like a tree without roots,”’ says Robert Lawson, who grew up in Oak Hill, 20 miles west of Gallipolis. “To be anything or go anywhere, you need to know where you came from and how difficult the struggles were.”

Last year, Lawson, a management consultant in Portsmouth, Ohio, brought his two youngest children, James and Michael, to the event to share his childhood experience.

Only 3 percent of Gallia County residents are of African-American descent. Still, they’ve held onto the tradition through strong family ties and relationships with local churches.

“The people here are secluded in a way many other communities aren’t. So knowing your heritage matters,” says Adah Ward Randolph, a professor at Ohio University in Athens, leafing through dozens of three-ring binders spread on tables at the Gallia County Fairgrounds.

Barbara Scott, 70, assembled 35 of the large binders—packed with photos, news clippings, historical documents, and memorabilia—herself. She began compiling the information in 1983 to help her son learn about his grandparents, and soon the project turned into an extensive history of African-Americans in Gallia County.

“I remember one year a young man came. He’d been trying to find his people for a long time,” Scott recalls. “Looking through one of my books, suddenly he stopped, pointed at a picture, and said, ‘Here is my grandmother!’ Tears just started running down his face.”

Respect for the past—and past struggles—keeps event organizers determined to continue.

Before the Civil War, Gallia County was a haven for the mixed-race children of slaves, says Alice Conner Coleman, a Chicago resident who comes every year to learn more about her father’s ancestors. “They kept them in groups to be safe,” she explains.

Many so-called “blacks” in the county are light-skinned, like Tijana Justice Mullins, an attractive, curly-haired blonde who lives on part of the Lambert Lands, 20 miles north of Gallipolis. Three brothers, Virginia plantation owners, bought the land for their freed slaves in the 1840s.

As a child, Mullins accompanied her mixed-race parents to The Emancipation. Later, she brought her own daughter, Standela, to the celebration. Today, Standela, grown and married, sings slave songs—handed down over the generations—on the main stage.

Escaped slaves found refuge in Gallia County, too. Scott recalls the story of Mary Agnes Wilson, a young black woman crying on a Southern plantation, afraid she’d be sold to another plantation. “A soldier, Joseph Smith, said, ‘No, I love you. I won’t let you be sold.’ Crossing the Ohio River at Point Pleasant, he carried her to freedom. They settled in Buck Ridge and became my great-grandparents.”

Family ties and history draw some; still others come for the food.

“Oh yeah! Whatever you could want,” Herman Mayo says, his eyes lighting up like sparklers. “One guy has roast pig. A lady I know fries fish up. There’s corn bread, chicken, bean dinners.”

Not to mention the cream pies, cakes, and cobblers.

Best of all, Emancipation feeds the soul.

Lynn Wasnak is a freelance writer in Cincinnati, Ohio.

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