Emancipation

Frustrated screams from centuries of injustice echoed in every corner of the cramped, dank cabins and shacks where black slaves daily swallowed several helpings of suffering and humiliation.So by the time the Civil War came to divide the country in a conflict whites believed stemmed from property rights and preserving the union, the slaves had already decided the war was being fought to secure their freedom."The slaves knew [the role the war would have to play] during a period when they had nothing more than blind faith," Dr. Leslie S. Rowland told the 50 people gathered Monday night in McDaniel Lounge at Western Maryland College.

The Hays-Heighe House at Harford Community College will host Emancipation and Its Legacies, a national traveling exhibition on display through Feb. 25. In conjunction with the exhibit, the Hays-Heighe House is sponsoring free programs and other events for the public. Developed by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in partnership with the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Emancipation and Its Legacies marks the sesquicentennial of President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.

With a basketball jersey draped loosely on his shoulders and barbecue smoke thick in the air, 10-year-old Gavin Queenan sat on a park bench and explained why he was celebrating Juneteenth, a 138-year-old commemoration of the ending of slavery in America. "When they had water fountains that we couldn't go to and the white people could -- that's not fair," he said Saturday. "Now everything is changed and we have a better life." Gavin, from Norristown, Pa., said he attended the two-day festival in Carroll Park -- a celebration of God, family, music and food -- to think about his ancestors "and learn how they lived."

Join St. Mark's United Methodist Church in its annual Emancipation Day Celebration, Sat., Sept. 1, starting at 11 a.m. at Emancipation Park, on Eight Street. Enjoy coed softball games and other outdoor activities at the park and McCullough Field as well as food vendors and music. The parade kicks off at 2 p.m. near St. Mark's, 601 Eighth St. Parade participants include local bands and poms squads. As part of the celebration, Laurel city officials will dedicate a podium sign in a landscaped area of the park that details the history of the Grove neighborhood and Emancipation Park.

On December 23, 2004, AVIS A. Friends may visit the JAMES A. MORTON & SONS FUNERAL HOMES, INC., 1701 Laurens St. Wednesday, 3 to 7 PM. Funeral Services Thursday, at Full Speed Gospel Emancipation Life Center, 8232 Redmiles Lane, Odenton. Family hour 10:30 to 11 AM. Funeral 11 AM.

In Monday's Carroll County section, the wrong date was published for the Western Maryland College Black History Month lecture "Who Freed the Slaves? Emancipation and the Civil War." Dr. Leslie S. Rowland will present the lecture at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 21.+ The Sun regrets the errors.

On July 27, 2006 JUNE ELLEN BURLEY was called home. Visitation at the Albert P. Wylie Funeral Home, 9200 Liberty Rd., on Wednesday August 2, 2006 from 4 to 8 P.M. The family will receive friends at the Full Gospel Emancipation Life Center, 8232 Red Miles Ln., Odenton, MD 21113 on Thursday at 11:30 A.M., with services to follow. Funeral arrangements were made by John L. William, IV.

By the time city officials gathered last Sunday for the annual ceremony commemorating the Emancipation Proclamation abolishing slavery, Baltimore had already witnessed its seventh homicide of the new year. The carnage prompted Mayor Schmoke to drop his prepared remarks and ask rhetorically, "Why are we killing ourselves like this?"The vast majority of homicide victims in Baltimore are young and poor and black. A widely publicized study last year reported that homicide is the leading cause of death among young black men, who die overwhelmingly at the hands of other young black men.But while it was entirely appropriate to address the problem of black-on-black violence on the day commemorating blacks' emancipation from slavery, it also was somewhat misleading.

Growing up in the Baltimore area in the 1960s, slavery was a word that conjured such feelings of disgust and anger, it was never uttered in the home of Morning Sunday Hettleman. So Hettleman felt surprise when she first heard about Juneteenth, an annual June event that doesn't just acknowledge slavery but celebrates the freeing of the last slaves in America in 1865. Learning about Juneteenth in 1988 turned Hettleman's silence into pride in her ancestors' fight for freedom, and she began organizing celebrations in Baltimore a year later.

The Artist Formerly Known As PrinceEmancipation (NPG 54982)Now that his long fight with Warner Bros. is finally over, the Artist Formerly Known as Prince has shaved the word "slave" off his face and announced his own "Emancipation." To say that he has been waiting for this moment would be something of an understatement, given the wealth of material on this 36-song, three-CD set. Even more amazing than the package's size, though, is its consistency. There may not be much in the way of great material here, but neither is there anything that's truly terrible.

Thanks to a quirk in this year's income tax filing deadline , many Americans are getting a lesson in Civil War history today. The IRS pushed back the filing deadline because April 15 landed on Sunday and today is Emancipation Day , which marks the anniversary of the 1862 District of Columbia Emancipation Act . The act is not well-known, but you could consider it the predecessor of the broader proclamation that President Abraham Lincoln...

Join St. Mark's United Methodist Church in its annual Emancipation Day Celebration, Saturday, Sept. 3, starting at 11 a.m. at Emancipation Park, on Eighth Street at Route 198. Emancipation Day is the oldest annual event in Laurel, going back more than 100 years, and celebrates the freeing of slaves in America. This year, coed softball games at McCullough Field on Eighth Street are part of the events, and food vendors and music will fill Emancipation Park. A parade kicks off at 3 p.m. near St. Mark's Church, 601 Eighth St. Parade participants include bands from Bowie State University, the Annapolis Drum and Bugle Corps and the Laurel High School poms squad.

Old Town Laurel's St. Mark's Methodist Church, along with members of the greater-Laurel black community, will hold its annual Emancipation Day Celebration Saturday, Sept. 3, beginning at 11 a.m. The celebration will be held at the aptly named Emancipation Park on Eighth Street. The aforementioned land parcel was dedicated and officially named Emancipation Park by the city of Laurel, during a celebration there Sept. 7, 1991. According to Thomas Matthews, the church's event coordinator and chairperson, this gathering has been held annually since the 1900's.

At the entrance to the Towson Library, visitors encounter a life-size photograph of Abraham Lincoln - familiar with his towering height and black attire, but unusual because he is clean-shaven and his eyes are stark blue. The photo is the first of many in a multipanel exhibit that focuses on the 16th president and his struggles with slavery and the Civil War. The library opened the traveling exhibit, "Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation," Thursday, and the staff has put together books, documentaries and Lincoln memorabilia to accompany it - including a collection of Civil War-era artifacts on loan from the Baltimore County Historical Society and a trunk borrowed from the Gettysburg National Military Park and filled with relics of 19th-century military life.

Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln By John Stauffer Twelve / 432 pages / $30 Frederick Douglass didn't think much of Abraham Lincoln's assertion in 1862 that blacks were the cause of the Civil War or his plan to send as many of them as possible to the republic of Colombia. The innocent horse does not make the horse thief, Douglass fumed. It is "the cruel and brutal cupidity of those who wish to possess horses, or money, and Negroes" that ought to be blamed.

On July 27, 2006 JUNE ELLEN BURLEY was called home. Visitation at the Albert P. Wylie Funeral Home, 9200 Liberty Rd., on Wednesday August 2, 2006 from 4 to 8 P.M. The family will receive friends at the Full Gospel Emancipation Life Center, 8232 Red Miles Ln., Odenton, MD 21113 on Thursday at 11:30 A.M., with services to follow. Funeral arrangements were made by John L. William, IV.

WASHINGTON -- There is the woman who thought it was normal to be someone's property.There is the man who risked all to guide dozens north to freedom across the Ohio River.There is the little girl born at a time when it was OK to maim a child for stealing a peppermint from her mistress."I seed dat candy layin' dere, an' I was hungry," remembered Henrietta King of West Point, Va. Her mistress found out, and, in punishment, pinned her head underneath a rocking chair while she whipped her."Nex' thing I knew de ole Doctor was dere, an' I was lyin' on my pallet in de hall, an' he wa a-pushin' an' diggin' at my face, but he couldn't do nothin' at all wid it."

On December 23, 2004, AVIS A. Friends may visit the JAMES A. MORTON & SONS FUNERAL HOMES, INC., 1701 Laurens St. Wednesday, 3 to 7 PM. Funeral Services Thursday, at Full Speed Gospel Emancipation Life Center, 8232 Redmiles Lane, Odenton. Family hour 10:30 to 11 AM. Funeral 11 AM.

With a basketball jersey draped loosely on his shoulders and barbecue smoke thick in the air, 10-year-old Gavin Queenan sat on a park bench and explained why he was celebrating Juneteenth, a 138-year-old commemoration of the ending of slavery in America. "When they had water fountains that we couldn't go to and the white people could -- that's not fair," he said Saturday. "Now everything is changed and we have a better life." Gavin, from Norristown, Pa., said he attended the two-day festival in Carroll Park -- a celebration of God, family, music and food -- to think about his ancestors "and learn how they lived."