Celebrating Freedom

Release Date: Tuesday, April 13th 2010

DC observes Emancipation Day on April 16. The annual holiday celebrates the day in 1862 when Abraham Lincoln signed the Compensated Emancipation Act liberating more than 3,000 DC slaves. To mark the occasion, several events were planned in Downtown.
 
The Act was in place nine months before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and more than three years before the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, was ratified in 1865. Locally, former DC Mayor Anthony Williams signed legislation making Emancipation Day an official public holiday in January 2005, promulgating month-long events ranging from lectures and exhibits to concerts and rallies.
 
The April 16th DC Emancipation Day Rally and March took place in Franklin Square at 13th and I Streets and included reenactments, speakers, an exhibit and other entertainment. Still to come, the National Archives (700 Pennsylvania Avenue) will open an exhibit, Discovering the Civil War, on April 30. The extensive display will include holdings created in response to the famous Emancipation Proclamation.
 
For more information about other planned events,  click here.