Just before the doors of the Old Family Dining Room swing open to welcome Elijah to the White House Seder, Dr. Eric Whitaker, a friend of President Obama, reads aloud the Emancipation Proclamation. Last week, as I researched the Obama Seder (the only Seder hosted by a sitting President), I was struck by several things,…
Congregants at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church cried out in testimony, prayer and song at a New Year’s Eve service recalling the vigils held by blacks 150 years ago as they awaited President Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. The document that helped end slavery in the United States resonated deeply in Charleston, where…
Across the United States, there will be re-enactments and parades, cannon salutes and speeches. The U.S. Postal Service plans to issue a commemorative stamp, while the Massachusetts Historical Society will display the pen Abraham Lincoln used on Jan. 1, 1863, to formally declare millions of slaves free. But the star of next week’s 150th anniversary…
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