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Florida city will recognize May 20 as slave emancipation day

Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Terry Redd, left, of Upper Marlboro, Md., holds a fist in the air next to a American flag with the names of Black people who have been killed by police, as people demonstrate by the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on Friday, June 19, 2020, to mark Juneteenth, the holiday celebrating the day in 1865 that enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed from bondage, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

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LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) — A Florida city is planning to formally recognize May 20 as the date slaves were emancipated in the state.

The Ledger in Lakeland reports the city commission plans to approve a resolution Monday declaring May 20 as Florida Emancipation Day.

That would mark the anniversary of when slavery became illegal in the state.

In Florida, the date was May 20, 1865, when Union Brigadier Gen. Edward McCook formally announced President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation from the steps of the Knott House in Tallahassee.

Officials say there are efforts in Florida to have cities and counties recognize May 20 as emancipation day.

For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, The Ledger (Lakeland, Fla.).

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Florida city will recognize May 20 as slave emancipation day

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