CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Congregants at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church cried out in testimony, prayer and song at a New Year's Eve service recalling the vigils held by blacks 150 years ago as they awaited President Abraham Lincoln's signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.
The document that helped end slavery in the United States resonated deeply in Charleston, where thousands of enslaved Africans arrived in America from the late 17th century to the early 19th century. The first shots of the Civil War also were fired in Charleston in 1861.
"It's not just an African-American celebration, it's an American celebration, akin to the Fourth of July," Reverend Clementa Pinckney said to 100 congregants at the two-hour service, known as Watch Night. "It's freedom come full circle."
As he read aloud excerpts from the proclamation, he told the congregation, "We stand on the shoulders of abolitionists and missionaries."
The lights inside the 194-year-old church were turned off shortly before midnight. In the dark, a succession of singers in a minute-by-minute countdown to the new year called, "Watchman, watchman, please tell me the hour of the night."
Watch Night marks 150th anniversary of Lincoln's proclamation - Read Full Story at US- Reuters
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