COLUMBUS, Miss.—Renita Holmes was in the 11th grade at the Mississippi School for Math and Science in Columbus in 2006 when she asked her African American history teacher, Chuck Yarborough, if the school could create an event to celebrate Black History Month. But Holmes made her suggestion in late February, and Yarborough did not think the school would have enough time to honor Black history properly before the end of the month.
Still, the teacher looked into Black history in Columbus—once a wealthy city with enslaved laborers building ornate homes there—and he learned that the local Black community had celebrated May 8 as Emancipation Day for over a century. Slavery may have officially ended on June 19, 1865, but Union soldiers from Alabama only got to Columbus and Lowndes County to free enslaved people nearly a year later.
Mississippi School for Math and Science African American History teacher Chuck Yarborough and former student Renita Holmes started the school’s first Eighth of May Emancipation Day celebration in 2005. The pair attended the 2023 event at Sandfield Cemetery in Columbus, Miss. Photo by Heather Harrison
Holmes and Yarborough then together decided to dedicate a program to the historic day and set up MSMS’s first Eighth of May Emancipation Day event.
“If you ever question whether or not your voice can make a difference in the community, look around,” Yarborough said. “Because a 16-year-old girl made a difference in this community, and we’re still carrying it on today.”
This year, MSMS partnered with Mississippi University for Women for the emancipation celebration in the historic Sandfield Cemetery on the warm evening of May 8, 2023, and the college selected Clint Smith’s “How The Word Is Passed” as its first community read to showcase slavery’s history in America. Amanda Clay Powers, dean of MUW’s library services, said the community reading program is a new addition aiming to connect the college with community members by discussing the book together throughout the year.
MSMS students wrote the scripts based on local history of enslaved people in several theatrical skits amid Columbus Middle School Choir renditions of “Glory”