Smithsonian parallels 1863, 1963 events that changed America from Emancipation to Civil Rights
WASHINGTON - President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and Martin Luther King Jr.'s march for Civil Rights were 100 years apart, but both changed the nation and expanded freedoms.
Beginning Friday, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture is presenting a walk back in time through two different eras. A new exhibit, "Changing America," parallels the 1863 emancipation of slaves with the 1963 March on Washington.
It includes an inkwell Lincoln used to draft what would become the Emancipation Proclamation and the pen President Lyndon Johnson used to sign the Civil Rights Act. There is also a rare signed copy of the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery.
The exhibit is on view through September at the National Museum of American History while the black history museum is under construction.
