Significant Events
Featured Collection
State Dinners
A State Dinner honoring a visiting head of government or reigning monarch is one of the grandest and most glamorous of White House affairs. It is part of an official State Visit and provides the president and first lady the opportunity to honor the visiting head of state and his or her spouse. In this collection, explore the history of
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Emancipation Day, A Celebration in Washington, D.C.
THE NEGRO CELEBRATION IN WASHINGTON The occasion of the celebration, which took place April 19, was the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. Two regiments of colored troops and various colored civic associations, with many other colored citizens, assembled in front of the Executive Mansion, making a dense mass of colored faces, relieved here and there by a few
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Emancipation Day in Washington, D.C.
Congress passed the Compensated Emancipation Act to end slavery in the District of Columbia and President Abraham Lincoln signed the bill into law on April 16, 1862. Three years later, after the Civil War ended and after the 1865 ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution officially abolishing slavery nationwide, African Americans in the District began to celebrate April 16 as a holiday.
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Emancipation in the President's Neighborhood, 1850
On April 16, 2012, we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the District of Columbia Emancipation Act, a day of jubilation for the city of Washington's African American community then as it is today. The document that President Abraham Lincoln signed gave broad legal promise to the capital's enslaved persons. However, new research reveals that prior to this historic occasion there were hard-won