D.C. gov. closed for Emancipation Day
District government offices will be closed Friday in honor of Emancipation Day.
Emancipation Day commemorates the day — April 16, 1862 — when President Abraham Lincoln signed an act freeing slaves in D.C. Some 3,100 slaves were freed by the act. Lincoln freed the slaves in D.C. nine months before he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves in the Confederate states.
The day became an official holiday in the district in 2005.
Emancipation Day events are taking place Friday and Saturday and include a rally and march.
-- Associated Press
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Washington Post editors
| April 16, 2010; 6:28 AM ET
Tags:
Abraham Lincoln, Emancipation Proclamation, Government
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