About the Author: Luis CdeBaca serves as the Ambassador at Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

Seventy years ago, a group of men and women organized at Independence Hall in Philadelphia to lay a wreath before the Liberty Bell to commemorate the date — February 1, 1865 — that President Abraham Lincoln signed the 13th Amendment, banning slavery in the United States. The plan to set aside February 1 was led by Richard Wright, who was born into slavery in 1855. After Emancipation, Wright went to college, joined the army, and late in life became the first African-American in the United States to own a bank. A year after Wright died, in 1948, Wright’s legacy was written into law when Congress passed a bill making February 1 National Freedom Day. Harry S. Truman was the first President to declare National Freedom Day, a tradition upheld every year since and reaffirmed again today by President Barack Obama.

As we mark that moment, when Lincoln sent to the states a… more »