US slavery emancipation day celebrated in Washington

For the 20th consecutive year, the United States Capitol celebrated the local holiday of Emancipation Day.

 In 1862, the Compensated Emancipation Act freed over 3,000 black slaves in the nation's first mass slave liberation.

Abraham Lincoln's executive order, the Emancipation Proclamation wouldn't be issued until 1863, a generation after the British Empire's Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 and even after Russia's freeing of its serfs in 1861.

• Washington DC marks slave Emancipation Day 
  

  Washington DC marks slave Emancipation Day as racial gaps endure

  In 1862, Washington DC became the first city in the US to proclaim a mass liberation for its many Black slaves.

Despite its profound and enduring impact, a national holiday to commemorate the end of slavery, known as Juneteenth, wasn't enacted until 2021.

I think it's important that every state and every city celebrate their local Emancipation Day.

I think it's critical that we acknowledge all that aspect of history that it's not, you know, Juneteenth is a Texas thing specifically, and we've kind of adopted that for the entire emancipation, as representative of all of emancipation.

But locally, it's important that we do acknowledge the actual emancipation date of our city.

Member of public 01

• Racist US policies highlighted on zero discrimination day
  

  Racist US policies highlighted on zero discrimination day

  Donald Trump

While commemorative holidays are a positive step in public education, they don't rectify the nation's notorious racial gaps which persist between white and black Americans in wealth, education, health, safety, justice and in almost too many other domains to list.

American apartheid formally ended in 1964 but there has never been a serious attempt to repay the descendants of the slaves, either in the money or the political power which was taken from them for centuries.

I don't think they have made a genuine change, because the people in power want to stay in power. The European Caucasian mindset has stayed the same.

So they don't really want to change the status quo. They want there being a class that have and a class that have not. They don't want there to be a middle class.

We do have a middle class in the United States. They don't want you to rise above your station. So it's mostly still like a caste system.

Member of public 02

• African-Americans lost $326bn worth of land in 20th century
  

  African-Americans lost $326bn worth of land in 20th century, study reveals

  African-American farmers lost roughly $326 billion worth of acreage during the 20th century, adding to the racial wealth gap in the United States, a new study has revealed.

The return, Donald Trump has seemingly provided the death knell for decades of the so-called affirmative action policies, recently re-labeled as DEI or diversity, equity and inclusion.

Many are of the view that such policies were poorly implemented and often abandoned before they could bear social fruit.

You know, we survived it all. It's been 400 years, and we continue to survive.

So it doesn't matter what the obstacles are. What matters is what's in our hearts and what's in our spirit, and that we keep our eyes on the Lord and we just keep moving forward, but we shall overcome, and we shall prevail.

Sooner or later, we shall overcome.

Member of public 03

In 1861, the commencement of the US Civil War, 15% of the population was enslaved, a proportion almost identical to that of the Roman Empire almost 2000 years earlier.

• US eugenic sterilization on Black people was act of genocide
  

  US eugenic sterilization on Black people was act of genocide: Study

  A sterilization program that ran in North Carolina from 1929 to 1974 was explicitly designed to "breed out" Black citizens and met the UN definition of genocide, a study said this week.

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