Nearly 148 years ago, on April 16th, 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act freeing about 3,100 slaves in the District of Columbia. Signed nine months before the Emancipation Proclamation, the D.C. Compensated Emancipation Act was the first and only time the federal government paid slave owners-- all other slaves in America were freed through the Civil War. Yet the descendants of the first slaves to be freed in America are still the last to be full citizens of America. Through the continued denial of congressional representation and District statehood, the 600,000 residents of the District of Columbia have still not been fully emancipated. On January 4, 2005, former Mayor Anthony Williams signed legislation making D.C. Emancipation Day an official public holiday in the District of Columbia. Without the burden of occupational or scholastic obligations, you are invited to commemorate 148th D.C. Emancipation Day with your family, friends, and neighbors.
D.C. EMANCIPATION DAY - APRIL 16, 2010 Commemoration, Rally, and March
To Honor the Ancestors and to Advocate for D.C. Statehood (Political Freedom)
Date:
Friday, April 16, 2010 - 11:00am - 2:00pm
Location :
MARCH: 12:30pm to D.C. Historical Society (9th & K Streets, NW)
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