In your recent editorial about the Eighth of May Celebration, you stated that there isn’t anything recorded about the actual event. There are several diary/journal entries and newspaper articles that describe the event and the aftermath. The beating of a drum for 24 hours was a standard event that commemorated the day on many local plantations and continued for almost a hundred years.

A newspaper article describes the huge influx of freedmen into the city. It tells of them sleeping in the streets and the total confusion it created. Of course, the locals organized food for them and tried to find housing. The Freedmen’s School housed lots of them.

The initial reaction for many of the Freedmen was to leave their plantations. The majority of them returned after several weeks and signed labor contracts with their former owners. You can judge the quality of life and pre-war treatment of the slaves by the percentages that signed these contracts compared to the antebellum census record numbers. It can be assumed that the plantations that lost a large number of former slaves were either run or owned by less compassionate people.

The newspapers were filled with notices of Freedmen trying to locate their lost families. This accounts for a small number of the Blacks who left the area in search of loved ones or who returned to former homes.

The Eighth of May Celebration was practiced in various parts of Central Mississippi, including Greenville.

Nearby communities in Alabama also observed the date. I still think it’s a shame that the Juneteenth holiday was promoted in Columbus and Mississippi over our own local holiday that predates Juneteenth.

The Eighth of May could have been our national holiday instead of Juneteenth.

Bob Raymond

Columbus