The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Committee on the 150th Anniversary of the Ratification of the 13th Amendment will host a commemoration and celebration of this event, along the span of the Walnut Street Bridge, on Sunday beginning at 3 p.m.
Time-era songs will be sung by the Committee Choir, followed be the readings of the Emancipation Proclamation and 13th Amendment, followed by statements and testaments, including the reflections that will be offered by Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke.
There will be highlights of the contributions of African-Americans and the local Chattanooga community and the 44th United States Colored Troop reenactors will be on hand, “standing guard.” There will also be a remembrance for the over 800 United States Colored troops that call the local national cemetery their final resting places of honor.
(13th Amendment timeline of events)
September 22nd, 1862: President Abraham Lincoln issues “Preliminary” Emancipation Proclamation following the bloody battle of Antietam.
January 1st , 1863: Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation which reads, “all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free…”
December 6th, 1864: At the last session of Congress a proposed amendment of the Constitution, abolishing slavery throughout the United States, passed the Senate, but failed for lack of the requisite two-thirds vote in the House of Representatives.
January 31st, 1865: The House of Representatives passed the 13th Amendment (S.J. Res. 16) by a vote of 119 to 56.
President Abraham Lincoln sends ratification of 13th Amendment to the States.
April 7th, 1865: Tennessee ratifies 13th, Amendment
December 6th, 1865: Georgia is 27th, State to ratify 13th Amendment, satisfying the required Having secured the necessary 3/4ths of the States requirement making the 13th Amendment Constitutional Law
December 18th, 1865: Secretary of State William Seward verifies ratification of the 13th Amendment.
Bailey v. Alabama (1911): Found the “peonage” laws of Alabama to be unconstitutional because it violated 13th Amendment
United Nations: Annual commemorates World Human Rights Day (December 10th) and Human Trafficking Awareness Month (January). Over 20 million persons worldwide are still in bondage.
*Compiled by Chattanooga Hamilton County Committee on 13th Amendment Commemoration.