The Wilkes County Branch of the NAACP will have the 146th annual Emancipation Program on January 1 at 12:00 noon.

The celebration will be held at the Shiloh Mission Center, 119 McLendon Drive, Washington. Rev. Edward Anderson will be the keynote speaker.

"We invite everyone to come and bring the whole family, especially the children," said Rev. G.L. Avery, president of the Wilkes County Branch. "As we celebrate our hardearned victories, we want to remind our young people of the struggle we had in order to get where we are today."

Rev. Avery also said that the program will be a pre-celebration of the 44th inauguration of the President of the United States, and the first African American to be inaugurated.

"One hundred and forty-six years ago, no one could imagine that as a people we would be witnessing this great accomplishment," Avery continued. "It did not happen by accident. First of all, God was in the plan; and second, people went to the polls in large numbers and cast their votes. Let us adopt President-Elect Obama's motto: believe, achieve, succeed," Avery concluded.