On this date in 1862, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Compensated Emancipation Act granting freedom to 3,100 enslaved persons in Washington, DC. Nine months later the famous Emancipation Proclamation was passed. The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC is always a very moving monument, especially in darkness.
This photo does so much justice to a memorial that is so emotional to Americans. It was here in 1963 that Dr. Martin Luther King said, "Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation." Robert Todd Lincoln, the only surviving son of President Lincoln, was elderly but able to attend the dedication of this great monument to his father.
