As we celebrate the 150th year of the Emancipation Proclamation, historian Kidada Williams reminds us that as we celebrate the sesquicentennial anniversary of the document, we should examine what the emancipation did and did not do.

With each civil rights victory, African Americans and other groups that have suffered on the margins of society, have served as the conscience of the nation and deepened the notion of American democracy.

The pain and sacrifice, the indignities and persecution you endured to confront man's inhumanity to man has made it possible for succeeding generations to take their rightful place as citizens of our great nation.

One hundred and fifty years ago today, the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. In celebration of this milestone in American history and the impact...

By Harriet McLeod CHARLESTON, S.C., Jan 1 (Reuters) - Congregants at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church cried out in testimony...

When I first started gathering together these amazing people to help with this project, I struggled with what would become my own letter.

I believe there is so much we can learn from you -- mainly the evils of complacency. What will future generations say about us at the 300th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation if we are complacent with just having an African American in the White House?

The truth is, things are not perfect for black folks today, but we have so much potential. I believe in our people so much. I believe in our call to greatness.

Along the way, there have been many challenges, but you have been the wind at our backs. You have been the constant reminder that ours is a necessary fight for freedom and a future without prejudice. And your memory continues to strengthen our pursuit of an even brighter tomorrow.

Our people have risen from chains and cotton fields to the pinnacles of industry, as well as to seats of power all over the world. Yet, despite such laudable achievements, the present struggles of many of our people remain great.

Though discrimination is rampant, the blueprint you all left behind has raised generations of Black people for whom forced genuflection at the altars of classism and racism will never be an option. But it has not been an easy road.

I write this letter with a sense of joy and a degree of cynicism within my spirit. You are the only ancestor of my family who is documented as being bought for three hundred dollars in the state of Virginia.

My dear ancestors, you might have trouble recognizing our nation today. The country has made great strides toward the promise of racial equality. Yet even with our many triumphs, the Dream continues to elude our people.

It has required tremendous sacrifice, but today our people have reached the pinnacle in all facets of American society. There is no level of achievement off limits or out of reach for African-Americans in this great country we call home.

January 1, 2013, the National Archives places the Emancipation Proclamation on rare public display, the text is hardly legible, the victim of age and light. But Abraham Lincoln stands out clearly.

The proclamation did more than make slavery illegal in the rebellion states; it changed the course of the war and forever transformed the nation. For the first time, it made ubiquitous the Jeffersonian notion of all being created equal.

By Chantal Martineau The Mayans may have only had it half right in their prediction of the end of the world, which means you've made it to see yet ...

WASHINGTON — As New Year's Day approached 150 years ago, all eyes were on President Abraham Lincoln in expectation of what he warned 100 days ea...

WASHINGTON -- President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington for Civil Rights were 100 years a...