D.C. Emancipation Day

"This day comes to us to remind us of our responsibilities as well as our rights," proclaimed Honorable R. B. Elliott, an African-American Congressman from South Carolina in 1872. "Citizenship and a participation in the government are guaranteed to us," he continued. "Let us now go faithfully forward.... Before us lies our mighty future, with all its hopes and aspirations. That future it is ours to shape."

The future to which Elliott referred began on April 16, 1862. On that day, President Abraham Lincoln signed into law the District of Columbia Emancipation Act. This legislation abolished slavery in Washington, D.C. by providing compensation of up to $300 for each slave freed by masters loyal to the Union. Women and children, however, were assigned a lesser value than men. Reflecting Lincoln’s faith in colonization efforts, the federal government provided up to $100 for those freed slaves who chose to leave the United States. As a result, 3,100 slaves received their freedom, at a total cost of approximately one million dollars. This act represented the first and last time the United States government authorized compensated emancipation.

News of the District’s Emancipation legislation electrified the nation and inspired widespread celebrations among African-American communities. Although soon overshadowed by the more famous Emancipation Proclamation, which went into effect January 1, 1863, the District of Columbia’s Emancipation Act offered immediate and tangible results to the local African-American population. After the Civil War, Washington residents acknowledged the significance of the legislation by holding annual celebratory parades. The initial parade routes began at Franklin Square and stopped at the Freedman’s Bureau (19th and I Streets, NW), General Grant’s headquarters (17th and F Streets, NW), the White House, and the Capitol. Participants dressed in their Sunday best, parade officials sported colorful sashes, and cannons roared on the White House grounds. Prominent speakers, such as Frederick Douglass, addressed the jubilant crowds.

By the late 1880s, local factions wrestled over control of Emancipation Day celebrations and their larger meaning. Washington Bee editor W. Calvin Chase used his influential position to endorse the annual celebrations, and his own participation in its planning. Perry H. Carson, a freed slave who became a Washington entrepreneur, also sought an active role in Emancipation Day events. The tension between the two men mirrored a larger conflict within Washington’s African-American community. Chase represented the elite of black society, whereas Carson allied himself with the District’s African-American working class. The differences between the two groups could not be bridged, and as a result each sponsored competing parades in 1886. President Cleveland refused to attend either celebration. By the 1890s declining participation and increasing violence marred the parades, and Emancipation Day events ceased to reflect their earlier spirit. The parade tradition ended in 1901.

Loretta Carter Hanes, of D.C.’s Reading is Fundamental, strives to rekindle the spirit of early Emancipation Day celebrations. To refocus attention on the significance of the District’s Emancipation Proclamation, Hanes hopes to bring back the celebratory aspect of Emancipation Day through a series of activities, such as parades, wreath laying, and bell ringing. More importantly, Hanes aims to use the celebrations to educate the public about Washington, D.C.’s pioneering role in African-American freedom during the Civil War. "A lot of people don’t want to talk about slavery," says Hanes, "because it’s so painful, but if you read about and study the past you see the bad with the good."

A host of local organizations, including D.C. Reading is Fundamental, Inc., The Historical Society of Washington, D.C., in cooperation with the National Park Service, have sponsored Emancipation Day events. For example in April 2000 C. R. Gibbs discussed the historical context of D.C. Emancipation Day in a lecture presented at the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.; The National Archives placed the District of Columbia Emancipation Act on display in its Rotunda for a ten-day exhibit; Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and U. S. Rep. Donald Manzullo hosted a program at the Cannon House Office Building. As bells rang at the Old Post Office tower to commemorate the DC Emancipation Proclamation, the DC government also celebrated the legal private holiday at the 15th Street Presbyterian Church. Councilman Orange made this celebration a reality when he passed emergency legislation calling for Emancipation Day to be officially recognized by the city on April 16, 2000.

C. R. Gibbs is pleased to see the "celebrations achieve prominence again and hopes the D.C. Emancipation Day tradition expands" to reach new audiences in the future. When Frankie Foer was an 18-year-old National Endowment for the Humanities Younger Scholar, he would have wholeheartedly agreed with Gibbs. "It’s sad that the anniversary has been ignored for so long," he told U.S.A. Today in 1992. "I think the proclamation needs to be studied more, to learn about why it happened and why we haven’t solved all the problems it was intended to address." The cooperative effort spearheaded by Loretta Hanes strives to address these historical gaps and have the streets of Washington once again filled with Emancipation Day parades.

To view the Emancipation Act click here.