The 2019 Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation will be held by Katie Hall Educational Foundation, Inc. with Board Member and Indiana State Conference President Attorney Barbara A. Bolling-Williams on Tuesday, January 1, 2019, at 10:00 a.m., Unity AME Zion Church, 5757 Massachusetts Street, Merrillville, IN (directly behind Dunkin Donuts on Broadway).
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation or Proclamation 95 as an Executive Order on January 1, 1863. This document forever changed the federal legal status of more than 3.5 million enslaved African-Americans in the designated areas of the South from slave to free. The Emancipation Proclamation was issued as a war measure during the American Civil War, directed to all of the areas in rebellion and all segments of the Executive branch of the United States.
On May 19, 2018, the Katie Hall Educational Foundation, Inc. (KHEF) was invited to a private viewing of the Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, in Springfield, Illinois.
The KHEF encourages youth to attend this event, which is free and open to the General Public.