Did you know today - 1 February - is National Freedom Day? I had no idea, to be honest, until I was searching for an article for Black History Month (which is February by the way). It was on 1 February 1865 that President Abraham Lincoln signed the joint resolution - the 13th Amendment - abolishing slavery. How did National Freedom Day come about then? According to the Weekly Review, in Birmingham, Alabama, from 31 July 1948, Major R. R. Wright, Sr. organized the National Freedom Day Association in 1941. The purpose of the association was to establish a national Freedom Day. Wright was born a slave in 1853 in Georgia to Richard Wright and Harriet Lynch. The 1880 Census shows a R.R. Wright living in Cuthbert, Randolph County, Georgia. He was 27 at the time and an editor. He lived with his 23 year old wife and two children. According to the census, both his parents had been born in South Carolina. Other sources confirm his name is Richard Robert Wright and his wife's is L...
by Jeanne Ruczhak-Eckman