WASHINGTON — Emancipation Day is a celebration that’s both uniquely Washingtonian and wholly American. It commemorates the day people who were enslaved in the District were officially free.
THE QUESTION
How did Emancipation Day become a holiday?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
Though commemorating an event in 1862, it took until 2005 for Washington, D.C. to officially recognize Emancipation Day as a legal holiday in the District.
WHAT WE FOUND
April 16, 1862, began like every other day in the capital of a nation fraught with Civil War. Then, with Abraham Lincoln’s signature on a law outlawing slavery in the District, it became Emancipation Day.
“It seemed as though the world had turned upside down,” said C.R. Gibbs, a lifelong resident of the District and student of its history. “It is the first time that the federal government puts its full force behind the drive to end slavery.”
Gibbs says this action was pivotal to America’s future.
“In the old days before Emancipation, D.C.'s reputation to its black citizens was far from positive, he said. ““We wanted to be free. And after much time, it happened in D.C. And what happened here was the prelude to what would ultimately happened to the rest of the nation.”
The DC Compensated Emancipation Act reimbursed the legal owners of 3,100 people who were immediately freed. This was months before the Emancipation proclamation and more than two years before the passage of the 13th amendment.
“It begins here in the nation's capital,” said Gibbs. “By the time the Civil War ends, we're going to have 40,000 people come into the District and the surrounding areas brought here by a love of freedom, a chance to chart their own destiny, as well as protect their families.”
And ever since, April 16 was no ordinary day in the District.
“Certainly for the African-American community. D.C. emancipation was the social event of the season,” reflects Gibbs.
But it wasn’t until 2005, with the passage of DC Act 15-082, The District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Day became a public legal holiday here, declaring: “It is important to the descendants of those free blacks and slaves, and to all other citizens in the District, that this important moment in our country’s and the District’s history be formally recognized by the District.”
“There's almost an unbroken chain of celebrations and observances,” said Gibbs.
And with celebration, he hopes, reflection -- and action.
"[It's] not just an excuse to party, but that there is a history of struggle and resistance behind it,” said Gibbs. “Inspired by what previous men and women of earlier eras did: that ought to give us strength when we get tired.”
