Emancipation Day

By: Miriam Edelman

Emancipation Day (April 16th), a D.C. holiday, commemorates the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, which ended slavery in D.C. On April 16, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the law, freeing 3,100 slaves in the nation’s capital. Eight months later, the Emancipation Proclamation freed the South’s slaves.

This year, D.C. had at least three Emancipation Day events, all on Sunday, April 13th, near the Wilson Building, D.C.’s city hall. At 2:00 p.m., the Emancipation Day 20th Anniversary Parade began at Pennsylvania Avenue and 10th Street, N.W. It ended at Freedom Plaza. At 4:00 p.m., the DC Emancipation Day 20th Anniversary Concert occurred at Freedom Plaza. Finally, at 8:30 p.m., the DC Emancipation Day 20th Anniversary Fireworks Display occurred at Freedom Plaza.

Emancipation Day last year was tied to D.C. statehood. Supporting D.C. statehood, 51 youth volunteers were scheduled to represent the U.S.’s 50 states and D.C. in last year’s Emancipation Day parade on April 14, 2024. On the next day, D.C.’s Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Administration hosted the seventh annual Full Democracy Champions Luncheon. The theme of the lunch was “Defending Our Vote.” D.C.’s government wrote that the lunch “serves as a tribute to DC history, while inspiring collective action toward achieving full voting rights and statehood for the District of Columbia.” At the lunch, D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson, Bowser, and the League of Women Voters’ Kelly McFarland Stratman discussed D.C. statehood. As McFarland Stratman concluded,

It is time for us to make a bold stand for democracy by supporting DC statehood. It's time to eradicate this injustice. There cannot, cannot be another generation without full rights. We must admit the Washington Douglas Commonwealth into the Union.

Washington, D.C., should gain freedom from federal control and finally become a state.