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DESCRIPTION:California 175 - National Freedom Day, commemorates the long and difficult 
 journey toward establishing the 13th Amendment to the United States 
 Constitution.  \n\nWe must never forget the price for freedom during our 
 U.S. Civil War where nearly a million Americans reportedly died in a 
 collective total:  Union and Confederate soldiers who died on the bloody 
 battlefields along with countless civilian and formerly enslaved casualties 
 from disease and starvation. \n\nOur California Black Veterans Project 
 seeks to research, preserve and memorialize United States Colored Troops 
 from California who served during our US Civil War to preserve the Union 
 and end chattel slavery throughout the United States of America. \n\nOn 
 February 1, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln signed a joint House and Senate 
 resolution that would ultimately be ratified as the 13th Amendment to the 
 US Constitution. \n\nThe 13th Amendment extended and expanded on the 
 Emancipation Proclamation that Lincoln had issued in 1863, which only 
 applied to enslaved people living in states under rebellion (it did not 
 include enslaved people living in Union slave states such as Maryland, 
 Delaware, Missouri, and Kentucky). \n\nThe Emancipation Proclamation was 
 also issued via executive order and therefore subject to judicial review 
 and the potential to be overturned if orders lack support by the 
 Constitution.\n\nThe US Senate passed the amendment to abolish slavery on 
 April 8, 1864 and the US House passed it on January 31 to be signed on 
 February 1st by President Lincoln. \n\nThe 13th Amendment would became 
 ratified after 2/3 of the State Legislature approved on December 6, 1865 
 and proclaimed on December 18, 1865.\n\nMajor Richard Robert Wright Sr., 
 who was born into slavery in 1855, believed that there should be a holiday 
 for celebrating freedom for all Americans. \n\nMajor Wright was highly 
 accomplished within his own right as an educator, politician, and banker as 
 well as a civil rights advocate.\n\nIn 1898, Major Wright was appointed to 
 major and paymaster of the United States “Buffalo Soldiers” in the US 
 Army by President William McKinley and was the highest ranking Black 
 officer during the Spanish-American War. \n\nMajor Wright was the first 
 president of the Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youth (which 
 is now Savannah State University, a historically black university in 
 Savannah, GA) and also chartered the only Black-owned bank in the North, 
 Philadelphia's Citizen and Southern Bank and Trust Company. \n\nMajor 
 Wright also formed the National Freedom Day Association in order to achieve 
 his dream of establishing a day to celebrate freedom for all people. \n\nOn 
 February 1st, 1941, Major Wright invited national and local leaders to meet 
 in Philadelphia to come up with a plan to the first of February a day to 
 memorialize the signing of the 13th Amendment as the day to 
 celebrate.\n\nMajor Wright unfortunately passed away in 1947, a year before 
 his dream would become reality. On June 30, 1948, the bill to designate 
 February 1 as National Freedom Day was signed into law by President Harry 
 Truman. \n\nAlongside Negro History Week, which was started by Virginian 
 Carter G. Woodson in 1926, these were the forerunners to the designation of 
 February as Black History Month. \n\nWhile the 13th Amendment was a 
 significant step forward in abolishing slavery, the amendment did make an 
 exception for slavery "as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall 
 have been duly convicted," which paved the way for mass incarceration and 
 the use of convict labor in prisons throughout the land.\n\nCalifornia 175 
 - 2025 Black History Month explores the journey towards California becoming 
 the 31st State, September 9, 1850 and our unique California Journey From 
 Slavery to Freedom.\n\n​​2025​ State of California Holiday 
 Dates\n\nWednesday, January 1 New Year’s Day\nMonday, January 20​ 
 Martin Luther King Jr. Day\nSaturday, February 1 Freedom Day 
 (Optional)\nMonday, February 17​ Presidents’ Day\nMonday, March 31 
 Cesar Chavez Day (Observed)\nMonday, May 26 Memorial Day\nFriday, July 4 
 Independence Day\nThursday, June 19 Juneteenth (Optional)\nMonday, 
 September 1 Labor Day\nTuesday, November 11 Veterans Day**\nThursday, 
 November 27 Thanksgiving Day\nFriday, November 28 Day after 
 Thanksgiving\nThurs​day, December 25 Christmas Day\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2025/01/12/18872134.php
SUMMARY:California 175 - National Freedom Day - California State Capitol Park - Civil War Grove
LOCATION:Civil War Grove - California State Capitol Park\nRev. Thomas Starr King 
 Statue
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2025/01/12/18872134.php
DTSTART:20250201T193000Z
DTEND:20250201T210000Z
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