Charleston native Cyrus Birch III, a stunt performer and youth advocate, will serve as the grand marshal Sunday during the 160th Emancipation Celebration Parade.
The parade will start at 2 p.m. at Burke High School and end on Concord Street at Gadsdenboro Park near the International African American Museum (IAAM).
The Emancipation Proclamation took effect on Jan. 1, 1863, ending slavery in slave-holding Southern states. Freedom to enslaved people, however, didn’t come until the end of the Civil War in the spring of 1865.
The Emancipation Proclamation has been celebrated in Charleston with a parade since 1866. It is considered to be one of the most consistently held annual parades in the United States, according to the parade’s sponsor, the Emancipation Proclamation Association.
The public is invited to join a celebration at Gadsdenboro Park, 303 Concord St., from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. The event will feature a live DJ, food truck vendors, info booths and three hour-long Adinkra cloth stamping workshops, beginning at 2:45 p.m. The workshops will be hosted by the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.
Following the parade, Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg is scheduled to attend a 3:45 p.m. remembrance service outside the IAAM. The Avery Research Center at the College of Charleston is also involved in planning the service.
Gullah Chef B.J. Dennis, from Netflix’s High on the Hog, will conduct a cooking demonstration at 3:15 p.m.
The parade will move east on Fishburne Street to Ashley Avenue, then north on Ashley to Sumter Street, east on Sumter to King Street, south on King to Calhoun Street, then east on Calhoun to Concord Street.
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