As Dec. 31 brings us to the end of the year, we all still have something to be thankful for in a year of overwhelming tragedy and disappointment, which brings with it an uncertain future.
Growing up in the Black community of Pine Bluff, we suffered many of these setbacks, and I don’t ever recall anyone who took the time to explain the meaning of “Watch Night Services.”
All I knew was, every year on Dec. 31 the faithful would gather in churches across the city to sing, pray, and witness the goodness of the Almighty God/YAH. The service usually began anywhere from 9 or 10 p.m. and ended at midnight with the entrance of the New Year. When it was finished, we returned home to wait for the next year.
Like many others at that the time, I always assumed that Watch Night was a fairly standard Christian church service, filled with testimonies and prayers, etc., which was a normal church meeting when the Black church gathered together late at night.
However, there is a reason for the importance of New Year’s Eve services in African-American congregations. The Watch Night Services in Black communities that we celebrate today can be traced back to gatherings on Dec. 31, 1862, also known as “Freedom’s Eve.” On that night, Blacks came together in churches, anxiously awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation had become law. Then, at the stroke of midnight, it was Jan. 1, 1863, and all slaves in the Confederate States were declared legally free.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
When the news was received, there were prayers, shouts, and songs of joy as people fell to their knees and thanked God/YAH. Black folks have gathered in churches annually on New Year’s Eve ever since, praising God for bringing us safely through another year. It’s been 157 years since that first Freedom’s Eve and many of us were never taught the African-American history of Watch Night, but tradition still brought us together and every year we continued to celebrate how God brought us through difficult times and dangers seen and unseen.
The oldest church in Arkansas and west of the Mississippi, the Historic Elm Grove Baptist, organized 22 years before the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and no doubt the members of the church participated in “Watch Night Services.”
Therefore, it is extremely important to teach our young people of all races to know with God they can become architects of their future by embracing the faith of our fathers, the principles of education, family, free enterprise, faith, hard work, and personal responsibility, and that there is no limit to what they can do or become.
Covid-19 has limited many churches of the opportunity to continue the Watch Night legacy; nonetheless, the faith and testimonies remain strong in spite of the many challenges, because we realize it was the Almighty God/YAH who has brought us through this pandemic and other issues thus far.
The Rev. Jesse C. Turner of Pine Bluff is the co-chairman of the 400 Years of African-American History Commission Faith and Justice Subcommittee.