By Effingham Now
A wreath will be laid at 2 p.m. Saturday at the old African-American cemetery near Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Effingham County.
The public is invited to attend. The ceremony will not include the usual readings or music because of the coronavirus. Masks and social distancing will be required, according to organizer Leroy Lloyd.
The ceremony is in recognition of Black History Month. The cemetery is at 2887 Ebenezer Road, outside the Jerusalem Lutheran Cemetery and near the Ebenezer Lutheran Church and the Ebenezer Retreat Center.
It may be the burial site of 100 freed African-American slaves who died in 1865 as they crossed the swollen Ebenezer Creek, following Union soldiers.
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By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism. Annual wreath-laying ceremony slated at Old African-American Cemetery This granite marker underneath a magnolia tree marks a gravesite for unnamed African-Americans who drowned in Ebenezer Creek in 1865. - photo by Mark Lastinger/staff Leroy Lloyd pours a libation in the early portion of a previous wreath-laying ceremony. - photo by Mark Lastinger/staff
RINCON Annually since 2016, Leroy Lloyd, a former president of the Effingham County Branch NAACP, has led a public wreath-laying ceremony at the Old African-American Cemetery located just outside the Jerusalem Lutheran Cemetery near the New Ebenezer Retreat Center.
Emancipation Proclamation anniversary is celebrated in Effingham
By Tony Chiariello
The Concerned Citizens of Effingham County, a combination of churches and civic organizations, held a drive-up celebration of the 158th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1 in the parking lot of the Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Association in Guyton.
The proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863, announced that all slaves in the rebellious states shall be henceforth, and forever, free.
It was not until the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified by three-fourths of the states on Dec. 18, 1865, that the abolition of slavery actually took place.
At the ceremony, Torian A. White, the principal of South Effingham High School, served as the master of ceremonies. He was valedictorian of the 1999 SEHS graduating class.