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SSU to Observe National Freedom Day Feb. 1

 

Commemoration Founded by SSU’s First President Kicks off Black History Month

 SAVANNAH, Ga - Savannah State University’s (SSU) Honors Program will host a wreath-laying ceremony to commemorate National Freedom Day at noon on Saturday, Feb. 1. at the Richard R. Wright Sr. bust in front of Wright Hall on the SSU campus, 3219 College Street, Savannah. The event is free and open to the public. 

Wright, who was SSU’s first president in 1890, later rallied local and national leaders to establish National Freedom Day to memorialize President Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States. This year’s celebration marks the 160th anniversary of that historic act. President Harry Truman signed a proclamation naming Feb. 1 National Freedom Day in 1948. 

"National Freedom Day has been celebrated since its inception in 1948,” said Dr. Carolyn Jordan, director of SSU’s Honors Program. “Savannah State University students continue to walk in the footsteps of our Founding President Richard R. Wright Sr. as they ‘Tell Them We are Rising!’" 

Preceding the celebration, Mr. Clinton A. Banks-Vicks will deliver a keynote address in the King Frazier Student Center at 6:30 p.m. on Friday Jan. 31 (also free and open to the public). He will share perspectives from his educational journey and explore the intersection of arts and commerce as a tool for liberation. An entrepreneur, educator, farmer, chef, entertainer, and thought leader, Banks-Vicks is the president of the Dougherty County (Georgia) Association of Educators.


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