Emancipation Proclamation Stamp dedication at The National Archives by (left to right) Danny Davis, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Ronald Stroman, David Ferriero, A’Leila Bundles, Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon. (Photo: U.S. Postal Service)
President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, creating what Deputy Postmaster General Ronald A. Stroman called, “a powerful symbol of President Lincoln’s determination to end the war, to end slavery, and to reconstruct the economy of the country without slave labor.