Celebrating a history of freedom and unity, The Vineyard Church of Syracuse marked their second annual Jerry Rescue Day in Clinton Square.

Community members gathered around The Jerry Rescue Statue in Clinton Square to listen to music, poetry and to learn the history about the Jerry Celebration.

“This is a story that comes from slavery but it’s a story that is encouraging, and it’s about liberty and it happened right here in Syracuse,” said Quintal Stitt, children’s and family pastor at Syracuse Vineyard Church.

Jerry Rescue Day dates back to October 1, 1851 when a man named William Jerry Henry escaped from slavery in Missouri and fleed to Syracuse. Because of the Fugitive Slave Act that was implemented in 1850, he was apprehended. A group of outraged citizens, both Black and white, rescued Henry from a jail he was being held at on Clinton Street. Since then, the day was celebrated as Jerry Rescue Day, but then it stopped around the time of the Civil War.

“Last year we did have a wonderful event, this is our second annual Jerry Celebration,” said Stitt. “The reason why it was important to start it back up because not a lot of people knew about this significant, historical event.”

Stitt says they wanted to get the word out, saying the historical event represented unity and that’s what they wanted to embody.