In the third year of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on New Year’s Day.

It was the first time the U.S. government had associated the war with what slaves had pushed for all along — a struggle for freedom.

The Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation — it was limited in scope and applied only to the states that had seceded from the Union and did not apply to slavery in the Border States. The document also exempted portions of the Confederacy already under Northern control.

But most importantly, the Emancipation Proclamation promised freedom in the wake of Union military victory.

This turned the moral course of the war and strengthened the Union in military and political aspects, allowing the document to take its place as a milestone along the road to destroying the institution of slavery in the nation.

On Jan. 1, 2011, the Emancipation Proclamation will be 148 years old. Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, 1416 Selma Ave., will hold an observance of the day at 11 a.m. The theme for this year’s celebration is, “Standing on our Past to Build our Future.”

Dr. Sonnie Wellington Hereford III will be the keynote speaker. Hereford is author of “Beside the Troubled Waters: A Black Doctor Remembers Life, Medicine and Civil Rights in an Alabama Town.”

He assisted Vivian Malone Jones in her quest to desegregate the University of Alabama in 1963 and served as medical director for the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March.

He has chronicled the civil rights movement in Huntsville in the documentary “A Civil Rights Journey.”

Judge Maggie Drake Peterson urges all churches to bring their youth departments so the children will learn about their heritage and legacy.

Churches are also asked to bring the scholarship donation, which will be awarded Jan. 1 to one of the colleges in Selma.