Jubilee Day Celebration returns after several years
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – Dozens of people gathered in song and prayer on Sunday at Galilee Missionary Baptist Church to celebrate Jubilee Day.
It has been several years since the NAACP of Brazos County held its Jubilee Day Celebration with the previous one being held before the pandemic. The celebration included the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, community leaders sharing words of encouragement and the keynote speaker, Jennifer Ross-Hasan.
Branch President, Ebony Knight-Tennell said Jubilee Day recognizes the day the Emancipation Proclamation was signed and its lasting impact over the last 161 years.
“That time is recognized as the time when slavery was ended and we definitely want to show some respect to that time in our history and remember that so we don’t stray away from the impact that it had,” Knight-Tennell said.
While the Emancipation Proclamation led to the end of slavery, Knight-Tennell said it certainly was not the ending to what slaves faced and what people might face today.
“Bondage did end on paper and we are recognizing the fact that the lasting footprint of that is everyone has a voice and we want to definitely use ours now to reflect.”
Ross-Hasan said she is thankful to God, and she is blessed and honored to have been this year’s keynote speaker.
“It is a feeling of thankfulness for where we have come and thankfulness for where we continue to move forward,” Ross-Hasan said.
As for what Ross-Hasan said Jubilee Day truly celebrates to her and many others it is just that, moving forward, making and change and lifting people up.
“It’s not you, me, us, it’s we and when we all work together for the common good of our common man, then God gets the glory,” Ross-Hasan said.
