Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Emancipation Day, Richmond 1905


Click on picture for HUGE version. Shorpy link here.

Emancipation Day was last Friday here in Washington. D.C.

The picture, at top, is Emancipation Day in Richmond, Virginia in 1905.

This picture was taken just 40 years after the end of the Civil War, and in the very Capitol of the Confederacy.

What you see here is Pride and Bravery without end.

And, believe it or not, on this day there was also a massive dose of foreshadowing too.

The article, below, is from the April 4, 1905 Washington Post story on the march.

NEGROES' DAY CELEBRATED.

Inauguration of Colored President Part of the Ceremony.

Richmond, Va., April 3 -- Thousands of Negroes observed Emancipation Day in Virginia to-day. The occasion resulted in an outpouring of the race never before equaled, armed with miniature United States flags and attended by brass bands.

In addition, there was a unique feature to-night, the inauguration of a colored President. At True Reformers' Hall the interior of the White House was reproduced, and all the ceremonies incident to the induction of a Chief Magistrate into office were gone through with.

Today was also the fortieth anniversary of the evacuation of Richmond by the Confederate forces and the partial destruction of the city by fire.

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