In a unanimous vote on July 1, 2019, the City Council of Charlottesville, Virginia, established a new city holiday, Liberation and Freedom Day, to be celebrated on March 3. Union Army troops, under the command of Major General Philip Sheridan, arrived in Charlottesville on March 3, 1865, liberating over 14,000 enslaved workers. "Blacks were the majority race in the Charlottesville-Albemarle area." In the 1870 Census, the first one in which Charlottesville appears, its population was 2,838.
By a 4–1 vote, the city council decided that the April 13 birthday of Thomas Jefferson, founder of the University of Virginia, would no longer be an official holiday in the city of Charlottesville.[1] News stories report that this change was because Jefferson was an enslaver.
On March 3, 2019, the slaves who built the university were honored in a ceremony held in the University Rotunda.[2][3] The university has built a Memorial to Enslaved Laborers, honoring the contributions of slaves who helped build and maintain the school.[4] "The memorial was recommended by a commission convened in 2013 to study slavery and the university."[5]
Joining in the March 3 commemoration were:
Albemarle County Office of Equity and Inclusion
Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies at the University of Virginia
Charlottesville City Council
Jefferson School African American Heritage Center
Memorial to Enslaved Laborers Community Engagement Committee
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People at the University of Virginia
Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello
United Ministries of the University of Virginia
Alumni Board of Trustees of the University of Virginia
Virginia Humanities[6]
^"Charlottesville to honor Liberation and Freedom Day, not Thomas Jefferson's birthday". WVIR-TV (NBC29.com). July 3, 2019. Archived from the original on July 14, 2019. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
^Davis, Moriah (March 3, 2019). "Charlottesville Celebrates Liberation and Freedom Day on UVA Grounds". WVIR-TV (NBC29.com). Archived from the original on May 1, 2019. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
^Bromley, Anne E. (March 3, 2019). "UVa Commemorates Enslaved Laborers at 'Liberation and Freedom Day' Ceremony". UVa Today. Archived from the original on July 15, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2019.
^Freedman, Emmy (January 9, 2019). "UVA to Recognize Lives of Enslaved People with New Memorial Marker". WVIR-TV (NBC29.com). Archived from the original on June 30, 2019. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
^"University of Virginia boosts funding for slavery memorial". WTOP-FM. Associated Press. September 4, 2018. Archived from the original on July 14, 2019. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
^"Liberation and Freedom Day". Virginia Humanities. February 15, 2019. [permanent dead link]
and 19 Related for: Liberation and Freedom Day information
of Charlottesville, Virginia, established a new city holiday, LiberationandFreedomDay, to be celebrated on March 3. Union Army troops, under the command...
World FreedomDay (United States) on 9 November in the United States, to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 LiberationandFreedomDay, 3 March...
Africa Day (formerly African FreedomDayand African LiberationDay) is the annual commemoration of the foundation of the Organization of African Unity...
LiberationDay is a day, often a public holiday, that marks the liberation of a place, similar to an independence day. Liberation marks the date of either...
Day is a special day for the reaffirmation of loyalty to the United States and for the recognition of the heritage of American freedom. (c) Proclamation...
National FreedomDay is a United States observance on February 1 honoring the signing by President Abraham Lincoln of a joint House and Senate resolution...
Confederate Memorial Day (called Confederate Heroes Day in Texas and Florida, and Confederate Decoration Day in Tennessee) is a holiday observed in several...
holidays on the day each year, also called Victory Over Fascism Day, LiberationDay, or Victory Day. In the UK it is often abbreviated to VE Day, a term which...
troops on March 3, 1865, bringing with them freedom for everyone enslaved, with its new LiberationandFreedomDay holiday. The Thirteenth Amendment to the...
and Canada on February 2 of every year. It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day and...
the Inkatha National Cultural Liberation Movement (INCLM) on 21 March 1975. In 1994, the name was changed to Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP). Buthelezi used...
The Party for Socialism andLiberation (PSL) is a communist party in the United States. PSL was established in 2004, when its members split from the Workers...
Labour dayand Victory day, can be an accurate equivalent of the spring break. Slovakia gives a week-long break to its elementary school and secondary...
until later, in 1641 in Massachusetts and in 1661 in Virginia, for example. As servants, they were entitled to freedom with the passage of a certain period...
recover to be sold and cover the fees and charges. X: States that all servants have the right to petition the court for their wages andfreedom in cases of mistreatment...
communities of Charlottesville and the University will observe this important event through the newly instituted LiberationandFreedomDay March through the city...
The Goa liberation movement was a movement which fought to end Portuguese colonial rule in Goa, Portuguese India. The movement built on the small scale...
Shushi LiberationDay (Armenian: Շուշիի ազատագրման օրը, romanized: Shushii azatagrman ory) is a national holiday celebrated in Armenia and formerly in...
Negro History: A Basis for the New Freedom 1965: Negro History: Freedom's Foundation 1966: Freedom from Racial Myths and Stereotypes Through Negro History...