Promises and Dreams: The Emancipation Proclamation 1863 and the March on Washington 1963

On August 28, 1963, at the March on Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. began his speech by declaring, "Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity....In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check." In 2013 the nation will commemorate two events that changed the course of the nation, the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation and the 1963 March on Washington. These events were the culmination of decades of struggle by individuals, both famous and largely unknown, who believed in the American promise that this nation was dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Separated by one hundred years, they are linked together in a larger story of freedom and the American experience. Promises and Dreams proposes a national reexamination of these two pivotal events and the larger relevance of that history today along with a major exhibit created together by the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.