Posted
on February 1, 2016
There
are several holidays surrounding the freeing of the African American
slaves, such as Emancipation Day
and Juneteenth.
Today,
I introduce another: National Freedom Day, celebrated on February 1,
commemorates the date when Abraham Lincoln signed a joint resolution
that proposed the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,
outlawing slavery. Lincoln signed the resolution on this date in
1865.
The
first time National Freedom Day was celebrated was in 1942; a wreath
was laid by the Liberty Bell as a part of the ceremony. That
wreath became an annual tradition.
When
I read that this holiday was created due to the efforts of a
former-slave, I wondered about him...
So,
let me tell you a bit about this holiday-creator:
Major
Richard Robert Wright, Sr., was born into slavery in Georgia in 1855.
When the slaves were emancipated, Wright's mother and her son walked
200 miles to get to a place where a freedman could attend school.
Wright went to the Storrs School, which was at first held in an
abandoned railway car (!), but which became Atlanta University.
Wright became the valedictorian at Atlanta University's very first
graduation ceremony!
Wright
earned both bachelor's and master's degrees.
Wright
did a ton as an adult. He became principal of a school, bought a
white newspaper and started one of the first African-American-owned
newspapers in Georgia, served in the U.S. Army and rose to be Army Paymaster, which made him the highest-ranking African American in the Army. He
established the first tax-supported public high school for African
Americans in Georgia and founded an industrial college. He conferred
with leaders and developed curricula and founded organizations and
served as a delegate to national conventions. When he was 67 years
old, he became a banker, and the bank that he founded became the
largest African-American owned and operated bank in the North (at that point in his life he he had abandoned Georgia for Pennsylvania).
Wright
lived to be 92 years old. The last chapter of his life, he
worked to get National Freedom Day as an official commemoration, and he lived long enough to celebrate National Freedom Day five times!
It seems that Wright's efforts to create this holiday
are what led to February being Black History Month!
Another
contribution from Wright...
While
he was still a child in school, a retired Union general named Oliver
Howard spoke to the assembled students. At the end of his speech, he
asked the children what message he should take back to the children of the North.
Wright stood up and said,
“Sir, tell them we are rising.”
Those
words, “tell them we are rising,” were simple yet hopeful.
They made a big impact on many, especially when they were
immortalized in a John Greenleaf Whittier poem called “Howard at
Atlanta.” That poem reads as extremely condescending and racist,
today, but it is interesting that the white poet took inspiration
from Wright's words. After quoting Wright (not by name, he spoke of him as “a little boy”), Whittier
wrote:
O black boy of Atlanta!
But half was spoken
The slave's chain and the master's
Alike are broken.
The one curse of the races
Held both in tether
They are rising,--all are rising,
The black and white together!
Eventually
Wright's granddaughter wrote a book with the title Tell
Them We Are Rising.
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