"What are you doing on the eighth?"  That was the big question every year when Knoxville's blacks had no intention of going to work for anybody.  The eighth of August was the only day of the year when blacks were allowed in Chilhowee Park.

     On the 7th, men who worked at Lay's or the East Tennessee Packing Company brought home the pigs to be roasted over outdoor fires most of the night.  It was also the day to place watermelons at the Northstar Ice Company to get them good and cold for the big day.

     The 8th was a day of picnics, cookouts, boat rides, games, and fun to celebrate Emancipation Day.  Emancipation Day?  Yes, it was the day in East Tennessee that blacks recognized as the end of slavery.  President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 did not affect slavery in Tennessee.  But, Andrew Johnson, then the Military Governor of the state, freed his personal slaves in Greeneville on August 8, 1863.  That date became the recognized date for emancipation in East Tennessee.

     The Knoxville Tribune of August 9, 1999, mentions a group of "some 200 Negroes returning at East Tennessee Depot from an excursion to Greeneville."  No doubt, they had celebrated the 8th there.