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Feb. 1 is National Freedom Day. (photo via Flickr Creative Commons user Scott Robinson)

Today marks National Freedom Day

Feb. 1 marks National Freedom Day, a holiday that is not common to some.

On this day in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln signed a congressional resolution proposing a 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, according to the National Constitution Center

This amendment would abolish slavery on Dec. 6, 1865, but Lincoln had passed away before he could see the ratification.

Then, former slave Richard R. Wright, was inspired to lobby Congress and gathered national and local leaders together to write a bill declaring the date to be made into a national holiday. When Lincoln signed the resolution in 1865, Wright was just a nine-year-old enslaved boy in Georgia. 

President Harry Truman signed the bill in 1948 making the holiday official. 

@TF_Johnston

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