A Gift to Abe Lincoln
Is evidence of the nation’s first Juneteenth celebration preserved at ɫƵ? Gifted to Abraham Lincoln in 1864 and now housed in Mitchell Memorial Library, a volume of speeches celebrating Louisiana’s abolition of slavery will be highlighted April 27 in a campus event led by Susannah J. Ural, MSU’s Frank and Virginia Williams Chair for Abraham Lincoln and Civil War Studies. The 33-page volume “Emancipation Celebration” is one of nearly 50,000 items in the Williams Collection of Lincolniana, housed in the university’s Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library. While celebrations held elsewhere in 1865 are oft-cited origins of Juneteenth, these summer of 1864 festivities may, Ural says, represent the original “Freedom Day” events. is required to attend the campus event.