Moonstone Arts Center presents three days of events on the link between “Emancipation and the Struggle for Racial Justice” from Oct. 31 to Nov. 6.
Abraham Lincoln has been called The Great Emancipator and the issuance of The Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 certainly changed American history forever. It is important to understand that this act was neither the beginning nor the end of the emancipation process but was the tipping point. Lincoln struggled with and evolved his position on emancipation over a number of years and was moved toward Emancipation by pressure from the public, from “Radical Republicans” and from his staff and army.
We look at this issue now because November 2, 2011 is the 150th anniversary of the firing of General John C. Fremont for issuing his own Emancipation Proclamation.
John C. Fremont was an explorer of the American West, a U.S. senator (1850-1851), the first Republican presidential nominee (1851), a Union general, and the Radical Democracy presidential nominee (1864). At the onset of the Civil War, he took the assignment of commanding the Department of the West, headquartered in St. Louis, at the rank of major general. On August 30, 1861, Fremont declared free all slaves in the border State of Missouri whose owners did not swear loyalty to the Union. President Abraham Lincoln first suggested, and then ordered Fremont to rescind the emancipation order. When Fremont refused, Lincoln then rescinded the emancipation order himself on September 11 and fired Fremont on November 2, 1861. This account is, of course, a simplification of a complicated history.
General David Hunter was the Union commander of the Department of the South, which consisted of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. One May 9, 1862, he issued an order freeing all the slaves in those states. Ten days later, President Lincoln nullified Hunter’s emancipation order, arguing that the general had exceeded his authority.
Abolitionists continued to advocate for emancipation on all levels: Thomas Wentworth Higginson started The Emancipation League in Boston; self-emancipation continued with formerly enslaved people moving through the Union lines and The Underground Railroad continued to operate. It is all of these efforts that finally lead to the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.
Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation didn’t technically free anybody. Lincoln knew this, and he worked toward getting constitutional amendments passed to abolish slavery and guarantee citizenship for blacks. The amendments he pushed for were passed after his death, but were mostly hollow attempts at black citizenship.
The 13th Amendment (1865) abolished slavery but provided no citizenship for blacks.
The 14th Amendment (1868) prohibited states from taking away citizens’ rights without due process, but Supreme Court decisions in the 1870s weakened blacks’ rights. This amendment would remain weak until the 1960s, when it became the basis for the Civil Rights movement.
The 15th Amendment (1870) prohibited discrimination of the right to vote based on race. In response, much of the South passed Black Codes (and later Jim Crow laws), which instituted poll taxes and literacy tests, excluding many former slaves. The black right to vote wouldn’t truly be realized in the South until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Thus, the struggle continues.
Efforts like these, actions by ordinary citizens, precede the pronouncement and the passage into law of every advance in society, including the Emancipation Proclamation (1863), Voting for African American men (1870), Voting for Women (1920), Social Security (1935), Fair Labor Standards (1938), the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and other issues facing us today.
Events include a panel discussion at Moonstone on the importance of popular action in both securing emancipation and advancing racial justice, a commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Gen. Fremont’s first Emancipation Proclamation at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and a special service at First Unitarian Church focusing on the theme of this event.
For information and details about this symposium, or to participate live online, visit the Moonstone website.
