FRANKLIN, Va. — The City of Franklin is marking Black History Month by launching an ambitious one-of-a-kind Juneteenth celebration.
News 3 anchor Barbara Ciara drove with photojournalist Michael Woodward to explore the landscape and history of the upcoming event. Franklin is 40 miles west of Norfolk, and nine miles north of the North Carolina border.
Once a part of Southampton County, the organizers tell News 3 that Franklin is home to two of the most famous slaves in American history.
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Dred Scott, an enslaved African American man who unsuccessfully sued for the freedom of himself and his family in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857, is one of the men that called Franklin home.
The other? Nat Turner, an enslaved African American preacher who organized and led a four-day rebellion of enslaved and free Black people in Southampton County in 1831.
With these historical men in mind, the organizers of the planned Juneteenth cultural celebration plan to have historic tours and entertainment with the goal of becoming the premiere destination to celebrate the now federal holiday.
"Why not celebrate the ending of the Emancipation, the end of slavery, where it all started in Virginia? Franklin is home of more famous slaves than any other county in America," Franklin City Councilman Gregory McLemore, who is leading the charge of the celebrations, says.
Councilman McLemore is hoping surrounding cities in Hampton Roads help drive tourist traffic to the event and help support historic tourism in the entire region for Juneteenth.
One of the planned tours in the planning stages is to provide a different narrative about the Nat Turner revolt.
Organizers say it will follow a trail of historical markers through the county tracing the locations of the rebellion through the area.
Narrators will present Turner in the light of a freedom fighter, from the enslaved point of view.
McLemore will roll out a schedule of events in coming months.
For a full list of Black History Month events in Hampton Roads, click here.
