FACT #17
The statue of Lincoln in Lincoln Park in Washington, DC, installed in 1876, was paid for entirely by donations from formerly enslaved people. 

DC Emancipation parades continued from 1866 to 1901. Church celebrations, which had begun in 1862, continued after 1901. The tradition of Emancipation commemorations was revived in 1991, in large part due to the initiative and research of Loretta Carter Hanes, a District native. Mrs. Hanes, an avid student of Washington, DC history, and founder of Reading Is Fundamental in the District of Columbia, began an annual wreath-laying ceremony in Lincoln Park (on East Capitol Street between 11th and 13th Streets) at the statue of Lincoln, installed in 1876, that was paid for entirely by donations from formerly enslaved people.

The parades, organized to celebrate the abolition of slavery, were also used to make public demands for full citizenship. African Americans recognized that legal freedom— through the DC Emancipation Act, Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment—did not automatically confer full citizenship. As a result, African Americans began a larger struggle over the meaning and practice of freedom and citizenship in the United States.

Source: https://emancipation.dc.gov/page/history-emancipation-day

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