For two decades, District residents celebrated D.C. Emancipation Day—- a holiday marking the end of slavery in the nation’s capital— at an annual parade and concert on Freedom Plaza, during panel discussions, and even online while learning about D.C.’s statehood battle.
Recently, while speaking about the holiday’s significance, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) paid homage to a former D.C. Council colleague who’s credited with bringing D.C. Emancipation Day to fruition.
“I have to acknowledge the leadership of (former) D.C. Councilmember Vincent Orange, who for many years championed the Emancipation Day holiday,” Bowser said.
While Orange did not immediately reply to a request for comment, the mayor emphasized his critical contributions to continuing the Emancipation Day celebrations in the District and highlighted the historic nature of the annual commemoration.
“We have, for many years, hosted a parade in celebration on Emancipation Day,” Bowser continued. “Recognizing that in D.C., because of the Compensated Emancipation Act, that enslaved people were first freed before Juneteenth, before the Emancipation Proclamation.”
Bowser, flanked by dozens of District council members, officials, and government personnel, cut a green ribbon on April 10 to celebrate the launch of Cedar Hill Regional Hospital – GW Health— D.C.’s first new hospital in 25 years.
Hours later, news surfaced of the House approved a budget plan, that, amid federal budget cuts, passes Medicare costs onto the District and the 50 states.
More specific to the District’s current budget woes, last week also ended with leaders in the House not passing a bill intended to prevent more than $1 billion in cuts to D.C.’s Fiscal Year 2025 local budget. Bowser, in consultation with D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) and D.C. Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee, recently alerted leaders of the House and Senate Committee on Appropriations to her use of her local authority to increase Fiscal Year 2025 budget appropriations by an amount no higher than 6% of D.C.’s Fiscal Year 2024 local budget.
Though this move, which would follow nearly $500 million in budget cuts across District agencies for Fiscal Year 2025, will need the D.C. Council’s approval within 30 days of Bowser’s letter, Bowser administration officials said it doesn’t require congressional concurrence.
As the District navigates a slew of Trump executive orders and an ongoing threat to budget autonomy, Bowser said she’s reminded, now more than ever, about her hometown’s political status. Days before she sent the letter to Rep. Tom Cole (R- Okla.), Sen. Susan Collins (D-Maine) and other congressional leaders, Bowser alluded to the work left to be done in securing autonomy.
“Here in Washington, D.C., I frequently reflect on what it means,” she told reporters on the afternoon of April 10. “Especially in the context of these budget disputes. I’ve called us free-ish, [so] we’re free-ish as citizens until we have two senators and complete autonomy.”
A D.C. Emancipation Day Celebration for the Books
On April 16, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, which freed more than 3,000 enslaved Black people in the District, compensated former enslavers, and provided assistance to the formerly enslaved who emigrated to other countries.
In 2004, with the passage of the D.C. Emancipation Day Act, D.C. Emancipation Day became an official D.C. holiday. The next year, a tradition was born.
This year, that celebration continued on Palm Sunday when, during the D.C. Emancipation Day 20th Anniversary Parade, Festival and Concert, a stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue became ground zero for D.C. history, culture and family fun.
A bevy of community organizations and institutions— including Mary McLeod Bethune Day Academy Public Charter School, the 40+ Double Dutch Club, and the Go-Go Museum & Cafe— marched in a parade that started at 10th Street in Northwest and took a series of floats and cars along Pennsylvania Avenue until celebrants reached Freedom Plaza.
From that point on, thousands of people who converged on 1325 Pennsylvania Avenue NW grooved well into the night to the live sounds of: Anthony Hamilton; Chante Moore; Crank Crusaders featuring Raheem DaVaughn; Black Alley; Tim Bowman Jr.; DJ Kool; and Washington Performing Arts Children of the Gospel Choir.
Britt Waters of ABC7 News served as event host.
DeVaughn, an R&B pioneer who spent his formative years in the District and Montgomery County and Prince George’s County, Maryland, embodied three of his personas— the solo artist, one-third of Crunk Crusaders, and host of WHUR’s 96.3FM’s Quiet Storm— while onstage at Freedom Plaza.
He called Sunday night’s celebration an event he couldn’t miss in these unprecedented times.
“We’re still fighting the good fight,” DeVaughn told The Informer. “And [there’s] a lot going on right now, in the climate of the country, the climate of the world, so it’s very important we still continue to fight [against] taxation without representation.”
With the D.C. Emancipation Day 20th Anniversary Parade, Festival and Concert taking place on Palm Sunday, LaToya Foster, director of Office of Cable Television, Film, Music and Entertainment (OCTFME), said families can create new memories.
“Sundays [were] a time when families would come together,” Foster told The Informer. “We would go and worship together. We would eat together. We would engage in activities together and that’s why this is so important. It gives the family an opportunity to come together to be able to enjoy a family fun day [where] your grandparents, your parents, your kids, auntie, uncle, everybody can come out and just have a real feel-good day on a calm Sunday.”
With programs like “The Road to Representation: The D.C. Home Rule Act,” Foster emphasized OCTFME a resource for District residents who want to learn about the District’s emancipation and civil rights history.
Foster, a fourth-generation Washingtonian and Eastern High School alumna hailing from Ward 7, also emphasized the importance of young people spending time with their elders.
“My father was very knowledgeable about D.C. politics and history and thought it was important that whether schools taught it to me or not, that he shared those stories of what was taking place and why it mattered,” Foster told The Informer as she thought about her rides to school in the morning. “Those were the times where we shared those types of conversations. He would point out certain areas to me [and tell me] what was going on at certain times in our history. He has done it recently,no matter what corner of the city that we may be riding through.”
Some Known, and Not So Known, D.C. Natives Reflect on the Occasion
For some people, like J’Ta Freeman of the go-go band CCB, D.C. Emancipation Day serves as a means of preserving Black history and continuing the fight for statehood.
“It’s just so important, especially in the state of the nation today,” said Freeman, a native Washingtonian and former youth mayor known to many as “The Voice of the City.” “We just want to continue to push freedom and ownership.”
Latena Hazard, crowned as Ms. Black D.C. 2025, also took part in the celebration as she rode down Pennsylvania Avenue in a red Infiniti sedan. For her, D.C. Emancipation Day is about celebrating the District and its values, especially as the Trump administration and other ultraconservative forces target African-American history.
“Legacy is important,” Hazard told The Informer. “And so is understanding our history and where we come from so we don’t repeat ourselves. In today’s political climate, when [the powers that be are] trying to erase our history, it’s very important to reiterate where we are now and where we’ve come from.”
Meanwhile, elder D.C. native Keenan Brown Sr. said he appreciated the display of local Black culture.
“It’s about legacy,” Brown told The Informer. “It’s a renewed sense of ancestry.”
Brown said he made sure to thoroughly educate his children about Black history, ensuring that he played his part in providing younger generations with the information necessary to successfully navigate the world. Brown expressed his admiration for the steady influx of Gen Zers and Gen Alpha youth attending the parade and concert with each passing year.
For him, that means the next generation is becoming increasingly aware of D.C. emancipation history and its continued significance.
“Too many of our young people don’t know about the legacy of emancipation,” Brown said. “In the past few years, it’s been great to see more young people participating and coming out.”
Freeman, who has attended the celebrations since her childhood, also expressed her appreciation for the youth turnout that she credits with inciting a growth in the stage and presence of go-go acts.
“Now we’re expanding, and so are our people,” Freeman said. “I love it. I love the elevation, I love the growth [and] I just love my city.”
I appreciate your article on D.C Emancipation Day but feel that it gives no credit to the true reviver of D.C Emancipation Day, Mrs Loretta Carter Hanes. The Mayor nor Councilman Orange know of her contribution and they did not mention her either during Sundays festivities . This native Washingtonian whose tireless research of the history of the April 16 Compensated Emancipation Act and the parade that commemorated it from 1866 to 1991, was then advocated by Mrs. Hanes for 8 years to be bought back into the limelight. As she shared her historical discoveries, several took up her charge to recreate the parade, in 2002. Tabu Taylor. Karen Schugate, Mama Marilyn Killengham and Ayo Handy Kendi, reenacted the formerly enslaved and a southern bell and walked the former parade route on April 16 20O2 to 2004 as a statement for historical recognition and to say D C was the first freed but it’s citizens were still not free due to not having statehood They were members of the Free D C Stand Up group established by Marion Barry and revived by Anise Jenkins who also took up Mrs. Hanes charge. In 2oo4 after their March they went to Councilmemeber Orange office and told him that he should speak to Mrs Hanes about the history of April 16, 1862 .and he did visit her She gave him the knowledge that lite his fire to draft legislation for the DC Emancipation holiday established in 2005, that we celebrated as the 20th anniversary in 2025. Let us be accurate in our sharing this legacy because now as the Friends of D.C. Emancipation Day we will never let Mrs Hanes contributions be.left out of this cities celebration and history.