Norton says D.C. Residents, Unlike the D.C. Emancipated Slaves, Can Free Themselves
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D–DC) marked the 150th anniversary of Emancipation Day in the District by marching in the parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, after beginning the day with a speech at a prayer breakfast held at the Willard Hotel. Norton spoke about her great-grandfather, Richard Holmes, who was a runaway slave here on April 16, 1862 when President Lincoln signed the District Compensated Emancipation Act, but was not freed by the proclamation because he was not a slave of a District of Columbia slave owner. "Lincoln did not free him," Norton said. "He freed himself when he walked away from a slave plantation in Virginia in the 1850s."
Norton said connecting Emancipation Day to the present status of D.C. residents was essential and called on residents to free themselves and their city. "Today, D.C. residents of every class and color are not in the place the 3,100 were who were freed 150 years ago," Norton said in her speech. "Our freedom is locked up in the Capitol. We can claim it, or leave it there."
Norton also introduced her resolution in the House recognizing the historical significance to the city and the nation of the D.C. Compensated Emancipation Act, as well as an Emancipation Day resolution from the D.C. City Council. Both are below.
RESOLUTION
Recognizing the enduring cultural and historical significance
of emancipation in the Nation's capital on the 150th
anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's signing of
the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act,
which established the ‘‘first freed'' on April 16, 1862.
Whereas the District of Columbia has a been a focal point
of the Nation's complex racial history, which has included
slavery, the Civil War, brutal and unjustified killings of
innocent citizens, racial segregation, and legal disenfranchisement,
among other violations of human rights;
Whereas on April 16, 1862, in the midst of the United States
Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed the District
of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, which authorized
the United States Treasury to expend nearly
$1,000,000, up to $300 per slave, to effect the freeing
of about 3,100 persons of African descent, and offered
$100 to former slaves who agreed to emigrate to countries
outside of the United States;
Whereas on January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln
issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which established
a ‘‘new birth of freedom'' by legally emancipating millions
of slaves in the 10 States of the Confederacy not
under Union control, freeing the majority of the Nation's
slaves;
Whereas the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of
the United States, which reads ‘‘Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as a punishment for crime
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall
exist within the United States, or any place subject to
their jurisdiction. Congress shall have power to enforce
this article by appropriate legislation'', was adopted on
December 6, 1865, and effectively outlawed slavery in the
United States;
Whereas the enslavement of persons of African descent endured
for more than two centuries in what is now the
United States, including the District of Columbia;
Whereas in 2005, District of Columbia Emancipation Day
was made a legal public holiday in the District of Columbia,
to be celebrated annually on April 16; and
Whereas the residents of the District of Columbia, who pay
Federal taxes, serve in the United States Armed Forces,
are subject to all of the requirements of citizenship, and
otherwise have long made contributions to the life, cul-
ture, and leadership of the United States, still are denied
voting representation in the United States Congress,
budget autonomy, and other measures of independence
from congressional interference afforded to other United
States jurisdictions in violation of the basic principles of
local governance and taxation requiring representation:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives recog-
nizes District of Columbia Emancipation Day, marking
the 150th anniversary of the end of slavery in the District
of Columbia, and symbolizing the aspirations of the citi-
zens of the District of Columbia for the same rights and
freedoms afforded to all United States citizens.
A CEREMONIAL RESOLUTION
19-207
IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
March 6, 2012
To recognize and preserve the cultural history and heritage of the District of Columbia; to formally recognize the 150th anniversary of District of Columbia Emancipation Day on April 16, 2012, as an important day in the history of the District of Columbia and the United States in that, on April 16, 1862, 9 months before President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 to begin to end institutionalized slavery in America, President Lincoln signed the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act to release the 3,100 enslaved persons of African descent held in the nation's capital, making them the "first freed" by the federal government, at a cost of nearly $1 million, in 1862 funds, paid to the people who enslaved them; to recognize that, after the Civil War, formerly enslaved people and others commemorated the signing of the 1862 act by parading down Pennsylvania Avenue in festive attire, with music and marching bands, proclaiming and celebrating freedom in the District of Columbia Emancipation Day Parade, which was received by every sitting President of the United States from 1866 to 1901; and to recognize that, on March 7, 2000, the Council of the District of Columbia voted unanimously to establish April 16th as a legal private holiday, the Emancipation Day Parade resumed in the nation's capital in 2002, and, on April 5, 2005, District of Columbia Emancipation Day was made a legal public holiday, recognized annually on April 16th.
WHEREAS, on April 16, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act ("Emancipation Act") during the Civil War;WHEREAS, the Emancipation Act provided for immediate emancipation of 3,100 enslaved men, women, and children of African descent held in bondage in the District of Columbia;
WHEREAS, the Emancipation Act authorized compensation of up to $300 for each of the 3,100 enslaved men, women, and children held in bondage by those loyal to the Union, voluntary colonization of the formerly enslaved to colonies outside of America, and payments of up to $100 to each formerly enslaved person who agreed to leave America;
WHEREAS, the Emancipation Act authorized the federal government to pay approximately $1 million, in 1862 funds, for the freedom of 3,100 enslaved men, women, and children of African descent in the District of Columbia;
WHEREAS, the Emancipation Act ended the bondage of 3,100 enslaved men, women, and children of African descent in the District of Columbia, and made them the "first freed" by the federal government during the Civil War;
WHEREAS, nine months after the signing of the Emancipation Act, on January 1, 1863, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, to begin to end institutionalized enslavement of people of African descent in Confederate states;
WHEREAS, on April 9, 1865, the Confederacy surrendered, marking the beginning of the end of the Civil War, and on August 20, 1866, President Andrew Johnson signed a Proclamation—Declaring that Peace, Order, Tranquility and Civil Authority Now Exists in and Throughout the Whole of the United States of America;
WHEREAS, in December 1865, the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified establishing that " Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction";
WHEREAS, in April 1866, to commemorate the signing of the Emancipation Act, the formerly enslaved people and others, in festive attire, with music and marching bands, started an annual tradition of parading down Pennsylvania Avenue, proclaiming and celebrating the anniversary of their freedom;
WHEREAS, the District of Columbia Emancipation Day Parade was received by every sitting President of the United States from 1866 to 1901;
WHEREAS, on March 7, 2000, at the Twenty Seventh Legislative Session of the Council of the District of Columbia, Councilmember Vincent B. Orange, Sr. (D-Ward 5) authored and introduced, with Carol Schwartz (R-At Large), the historic District of Columbia Emancipation Day Amendment Act of 2000, effective April 3, 2001 (D.C. Law 13-237; D.C. Official Code §§ 1-612.02a, 32-1201), and on that same date moved an emergency version of the legislation that established April 16th as a legal private holiday;
WHEREAS, the District of Columbia Emancipation Day Emergency Amendment Act of 2000, which established April 16th as a legal private holiday, was passed unanimously by the Council on March 7, 2000, and signed into law on March 22, 2000 by Mayor Anthony A. Williams;
WHEREAS, on April 16, 2000, to properly preserve the historical and cultural significance of the District of Columbia Emancipation Day, Councilmember Orange hosted a celebration program in the historic 15th Street Presbyterian Church, founded in 1841 as the First Colored Presbyterian Church;
WHEREAS, on April 16, 2002, after a 100-year absence, the District of Columbia, spearheaded by Councilmember Orange with the support of Mayor Anthony Williams, returned the Emancipation Day Parade to Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., along with public activities on Freedom Plaza and evening fireworks (D.C. Official Code § 1 -182);
WHEREAS, the District of Columbia Emancipation Day Parade and Fund Act of 2004, effective March 17, 2005 (D.C. Law 15-240; D.C. Official Code § 1-181 et seq.), established the Emancipation Day Fund to receive and disburse monies for the Emancipation Day Parade and activities associated with the celebration and commemoration of the District of Columbia Emancipation Day;
WHEREAS, the District of Columbia Emancipation Day Amendment Act of 2004, effective April 5, 2005 (D.C. Law 15-288; D.C. Official Code § 1-612.02(a)(11)), established April 16th as a legal public holiday;
WHEREAS, on April 16, 2005, District of Columbia Emancipation Day was observed for the first time as a legal public holiday, for the purpose of pay and leave of employees scheduled to work on that day (D.C. Official Code § 1-612.02(c)(2));
WHEREAS, April 16, 2012, is the 150th anniversary of District of Columbia Emancipation Day, which symbolizes the triumph of people of African descent over the cruelty of institutionalized slavery and the goodwill of people opposed to the injustice of slavery in a democracy;
WHEREAS, the Council of the District of Columbia remembers and pays homage to the millions of people of African descent enslaved for more than 2 centuries in America for their courage and determination;
WHEREAS, the Council of the District of Columbia remembers and pays homage to President Abraham Lincoln for his courage and determination to begin to end the inhumanity and injustice of institutionalized slavery by signing the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act on April 16, 1862;
WHEREAS, the alignment of the (1) election of the first African-American President of the United States, Barack H. Obama; (2) dedication of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial; (3) groundbreaking for the National Museum of African American History and Culture; (4) 150th anniversary of the District of Columbia Emancipation Day; and (5) 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 2013, are historically important for the District of Columbia and for the United States; and
WHEREAS, the 150th anniversary of District of Columbia Emancipation Day is a singularly important occasion that links the historic Presidency of Abraham Lincoln with the equally historic Presidency of Barack H. Obama, as the first President of the United States of African descent.
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this resolution may be cited as the "District of Columbia Emancipation Day – 150th Anniversary Recognition Resolution of 2012".
Sec. 2. The Council of the District of Columbia finds the 150th anniversary of District of Columbia Emancipation Day is an important, historic occasion for the District of Columbia and the nation and serves as an appropriate time to reflect on how far the District of Columbia and the United States have progressed since institutionalized enslavement of people of African descent. Most importantly, the 150th anniversary reminds us to reaffirm our commitment to forge a more just and united country that truly reflects the ideals of its founders and instills in its people a broad sense of duty to be responsible and conscientious stewards of freedom and democracy.
Sec. 3. This resolution shall take effect immediately upon the first date of publication in the District of Columbia Register.
Published: April 16, 2012