Thursday, April 16, 2026
By Lisa Fager?
On Saturday, April 11, the Black Georgetown Foundation hosted DC Emancipation Day: Learning and Service Day at the Mt. Zion–Female Union Band Society Cemeteries in Georgetown, marking the 164th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the nation’s capital.?
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The program opened at 10 a.m. with a libation ceremony led by Nana Malaya Rucker, grounding the day in ancestral remembrance.?
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At its center was a live performance of a sermon delivered in Georgetown on April 13, 1862 — just days before President Abraham Lincoln signed the District of Columbia Emancipation Act.
“Welcome to the Ransomed; or, Duties of the Colored Inhabitants of the District of Columbia” was preached by Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne at Ebenezer A.M.E. Church, two blocks from the cemeteries, and published in 1862 at the congregation’s request. It survives as a rare primary source documenting the moment emancipation unfolded in the nation’s capital.?
Courtesy Lisa Fager.
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The morning after delivering the sermon, Bishop Payne became the first Black person to visit President Lincoln at the White House, where he asked the president directly whether he intended to sign the D.C. Emancipation Act. Lincoln signed it two days later, freeing more than 3,100 enslaved persons in Washington, D.C.
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At this year’s event, D.C.-based stage and screen actor JaBen Early — whose work spans Arena Stage, Folger Theatre and the film “Harriet” — performed excerpts from Payne’s 1862 text in the cemetery setting where that history unfolded. Violinist Justin Silvey accompanied the simultaneous reading of the names of all 3,100-plus individuals freed under the Act.?
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Following the ceremony, participants took part in a volunteer service component led by Patrick Tisdale: cleaning headstones, removing invasive weeds and caring for the historic grounds.?
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“The people buried here were living through that moment,” said Executive Director Lisa Fager. “This program allows us to hear what was said just days before freedom became law — and to stand in the place where that history happened.”
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The Mt. Zion–Female Union Band Society Cemeteries, dating to 1808 and 1842, are the oldest remaining intact Black cemeteries in Washington, D.C. The individuals buried in the cemeteries include free Black Washingtonians, those born into slavery and those who lived to see emancipation. The site preserves the history of Georgetown’s Black community and serves as a place of remembrance, research and public education.?
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