DeKalb NAACP celebrates Jubilee 2020

1st VP Lance Hammands served as master of ceremonies for the DeKalb NAACP’s Jubilee Celebration on New Year’s Day at Rainbow Park Baptist Church in Decatur. The celebration, commemorating the Emancipation Proclamation that freed black slaves on Jan. 1, 1863,  kicked off with song titled “Ashokan Farewell” by Jay Ungar. Pastor Steven Dial provided a powerful invocation. 3rd VP Edwina Clanton provided a warm welcome and presented the purpose for the annual celebration. After the congregational led the Negro Spiritual by James Weldon Johnson, Deymon Fleming Jr., a high school junior, read the Emancipation Proclamation and Al Chatman led the audience in a Jubilee Exhortation for 2020. The Praise Ambassadors Choir and Dance ministry performed during the program. 2nd VP Vaughn Irons introduced the speaker for the program, Cameron McWhirter, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal’s Atlanta bureau. McWhirter provided a historical summary from his book, “Red Summer,”outlining the series of race riots that occurred over 100 years ago.