The Roanoke branch of the NAACP held a Jubilee Day event to commemorate the day that the Emancipation Proclamation was signed into law.

ROANOKE, Va. – While most people celebrated the start of a new decade on New Years’ Day, hundreds of people packed into a Northwest Roanoke church to commemorate a different holiday. The Roanoke chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) hosted a Jubilee Day celebration Wednesday afternoon. Jubilee Day commemorates the day in 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation to end slavery. Roanoke NAACP President Brenda Hale hopes the people who came to celebrate Jubilee Day went into 2020 as motivated as ever. We cannot be silent, no matter how oppressed people are in our nation.”Roanoke mayor Sherman Lea also addressed the Jubilee Day crowd.