The city of Columbus has witnessed a fair share of memorable days since its founding in 1821. Most of those red-letter days were captured in local newspapers, the first of which began publishing in 1833. For the past 101 years, The Dispatch has recorded those historic events.

Yet during that broad sweep of 202 years of Columbus history, you will find no account of what I believe to be the most significant day in city history in any local newspaper or any known private journal or written account of anyone living in Columbus at the time.

On May 8, 1865, federal troops arrived in Columbus with the news that the Civil War had officially ended and those held in bondage were immediately free.

It is likely this announcement was dutifully noted in the Columbus newspaper of the day, although it almost certainly would have not been treated as “good news” and definitely would have not recorded the reactions of the suddenly-freed slaves of the city. Outside of crime involving Black persons, the Black community was largely ignored by the local newspapers, a policy that would prevail well into the latter half of the 20th Century.

The slaves themselves would have had no means to record this historic occasion, either. In Mississippi, it was a crime to teach a slave to read, an offense punishable by up to a year in prison.

Yet the sheer impact of May 8, 1865, has done more to shape the city and its citizens than any other event. That there was no “real time” account of that day told from the perspective of those most affected is a profound shame.

By that time, people in Columbus – Black and white alike – would have known of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse and the assassination of Lincoln weeks earlier and must have realized something profound would soon happen to them.

Even so, the official news that they were indeed free must have been breath-taking for Black residents of Columbus. For all the spontaneous joy the news must have created, it’s likely those suddenly-freed Blacks must have wondered: Now what?

While there is no record of how many slaves lived in Columbus at that time, we know from Census Records that there were 16,730 slaves in Lowndes County. Most probably lived outside the city limits as plantation and farm laborers. The Census listed just four “free colored” people in the county. All four likely lived in the Columbus city limits.

What these people did in the immediate aftermath of emancipation is a story lost to time. What were the options? They were no doubt penniless, homeless and without work. Given that, how free were they?

I’ve often wondered how they processed his avalanche of profound emotions – joy coupled with uncertainty, officially free yet bound by different chains, those of poverty, resentment and oppression.

It would be almost two years before Congress passed “An Act to establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees” in March 1866 to provide food, shelter, clothing, medical services, and land to displaced Southerners, including newly freed Black people.

Until then, they were entirely on their own.

Historians tell us that many former slaves remained on farms, plantations and homes as wage earners. Many Southern freed people in the South left for the North or the larger cities in the South. That doesn’t appear to be the story of those freed people of Columbus and Lowndes County, though. The 1870 Census showed that the county’s Black population had increased by 5,279 since 1860.

Since 2012, African American History students from Mississippi School for Math and Science, under the direction of teacher Chuck Yarborough, have kept alive the memory of this most eventful day through its nationally-recognized 8th of May program at Sandfield Cemetery.

On Monday, these MSMS students, along with the Columbus Middle School choir, will again honor the Black history of Columbus. The program begins at 6 p.m.

The 8th of May celebration keeps that remarkable story alive and is something all citizens, black and white, should embrace. It tells the story of our Black citizens from the dawn of freedom and the subsequent struggle to make the promised freedom of May 8, 1865, a reality.

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].

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