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.
