AFRICAN AMERICANA., DAY, WILLIAM HOWARD. 1825-1900, ET AL.

AFRICAN AMERICANA.
DAY, WILLIAM HOWARD. 1825-1900, ET AL. Celebration by the Colored People's Educational Monument Association, in Memory of Abraham Lincoln on the Fourth of July, 1865. Washington: McGill & Witherow, 1865.
8vo (227 x 145 mm). Original printed blue wrappers, sewn binding. Tape remnant and ink mark on front wrapper, slight toning.
Provenance: Caleb Fiske Harris (1818-1881; ink stamp on verso of title page).

THE FIRST NATIONAL AFRICAN AMERICAN CELEBRATION ON WHITE HOUSE GROUNDS. Commemorating the life of Abraham Lincoln, this convocation took place on the White House grounds on July 4, 1865. The address was given by Reverend William Howard Day, the entire text of which is included here, followed by a poetry recitation by John Pierpont. Also contributing in the form of congratulatory letters were a number of abolitionist luminaries, including Frederick Douglass, Gerrit Smith, William Cullen Bryant, and Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase. The Colored People's Educational Monument Association was intended to create an institution of higher learning that was open to all races and desegregated, as a memorial to Lincoln. However it appears to have never come to fruition. Reverend Day is best known as the printer of John Brown's Provisional Constitution and Ordinances for the People of the United States, and as a founding member of the AME Zion Church.