Guinness World Records confirmed her as the worldâs oldest living person. According to the Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group, which keep a list of supercentenarians aged over 110, the only other living person born in the 1800s is Emma Morano, of Verbania, Italy, who is a few months younger.
She scoured the archives for any and all information about emancipation day and the parades.5 Starting in 1991, Hanes organized events that would commit the day to public memory.6 Eventually, Emancipation Day was made an official public holiday in the District of Columbia in 2005.
On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation, which declared âthat all persons held as slavesâ within the rebel states âare, and henceforward shall be free.â The proclamation also called for the recruitment and establishment of black military units among the Union forces.