The Gloucester County Sesquicentennial Civil War Committee will commemorate African Americans’ fight for their own freedom in a special program from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in the Gloucester court circle.

This historical event will present the struggles and accomplishments by African Americans leading up to and during the Civil War. Reenactors will portray Thomas Morris Chester (the only black news correspondent), members of the Robert Smalls Squadron, Frederick Douglass reciting Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, and more. The program will include period spirituals sung by local church choirs, black Union military reenactors will demonstrate drills, drum lines and musket firings, and closing ceremonies will include laying of wreaths.

For more information, contact Gloucester Tourism at 693-0014 or visit www.virginia.org/Listings/EventsAndExhibits/CommemorationfortheAfricanAmericansFightfortheirownFreedom.
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