The Rev. Darran Brandon, pastor of First Calvary Baptist Church in Norfolk, will speak at the annual Emancipation Proclamation Day service hosted on New Year’s Day by the Baptist Ministers’ Conference of Richmond and Vicinity.

The service will be held 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 1, at Fifth Baptist Church, 1415 W. Cary St.

The host organization asks that attendees bring donations of gift cards for the Armstrong High School Food Pantry.

The 81st annual event recognizes the historic emancipation of enslaved people through the proclamation signed by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War that abolished slavery in Virginia and nine other Confederate states on Jan. 1, 1863.

The proclamation would lead to the adoption in December 1865 of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that abolished slavery throughout the nation.