In a unanimous vote, on July 1, 2019, the City Council of Charlottesville, Virginia, established a new city holiday, Liberation and Freedom Day, to be celebrated on March 3.

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

Army troops, under the command of Major General

Philip Sheridan General of the Army Philip Henry Sheridan (March 6, 1831 – August 5, 1888) was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War. His career was noted for his rapid rise to major general and his close as ...

, arrived in Charlottesville on March 3, 1865, liberating over 14,000 enslaved workers. "Blacks were the majority race in the Charlottesville-Albemarle area." In the 1870 Census, the first one in which Charlottesville appears, its population was 2,838. By 4–1 vote, the City Council decided that the April 13 birthday of Thomas Jefferson, founder of the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

, will no longer be an official holiday in the city of Charlottesville. News stories report that this change is because Jefferson was a slave owner. On March 3, 2019, the slaves who built the University were honored in a ceremony held in the University Rotunda. The University has built a

Memorial to Enslaved Laborers The Memorial to Enslaved Laborers is a memorial in honor of those enslaved African Americans who built and worked at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Description The memorial is located near the University of Virginia Co ...

, honoring the contributions of slaves who helped build and maintain the school. "The memorial was recommended by a commission convened in 2013 to study slavery and the university." Joining in the March 3 commemoration were: *

Albemarle County Albemarle County is a county located in the Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its county seat is Charlottesville, which is an independent city and enclave entirely surrounded by the county. Albemarle County is part of the Char ...

Office of Equity and Inclusion * Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies at the University of Virginia *Charlottesville City Council * Jefferson School African American Heritage Center *

Community Engagement Committee *

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...

at the University of Virginia *

Thomas Jefferson Foundation The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, originally known as the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, is a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation founded in 1923 to purchase and maintain Monticello, the primary plantation of Thomas Jefferson, the third ...

at Monticello *United Ministries of the University of Virginia *Alumni Board of Trustees of the University of Virginia *

Virginia Humanities Virginia Humanities (VH), formerly the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, is a humanities council whose stated mission is to develop the civic, cultural, and intellectual life of the Commonwealth of Virginia by creating learning opportunities f ...

References

{{Slavery in Virginia History of Charlottesville, Virginia Monuments and memorials to Thomas Jefferson University of Virginia March observances Public holidays in the United States Holidays related to the American Civil War History of slavery in Virginia African-American history of Virginia Enslaved workers at the University of Virginia