Inaugural ceremonies of the Freedmen's Memorial Monument to Abraham Lincoln: Washington City, April 14, 1876

On April 14, 1876, the “Emancipation Memorial” is dedicated at Lincoln Park in Washington, DC., on the 11th anniversary of President Lincoln’s assassination. Frederick Douglass and John Mercer Langston speak at the inaugural ceremony; President Ulysses S. Grant and other officials of the federal government attend. The monument, also known as the Freedman’s Memorial, was commissioned and paid for by formerly enslaved peoples, but designed and sculpted by Thomas Ball without their input. Come June 2020, amidst nationwide demonstrations for racial equality, protestors demand the removal of the monument. They give voice to long held criticism of the statue, which depicts Lincoln with the Emancipation Proclamation, standing next to a kneeling and shirtless newly freed Black man. Today, the statue remains in Lincoln Park along with a memorial to African American educator Mary McLeod Bethune. Transcribe this project and learn about the speeches and festivities at the statue’s unveiling, 145 years ago today.