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Sound recording
United States Information Agency Audio Recordings Collection
USIAAU-026
Sound recording of a Voice of America (VOA) radio broadcast on January 4, 1963, covering ceremonies to commemorate the 100th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. The ceremonies are held in the Great Hall, National Archives, Washington, D.C., and also serve to introduce a new exhibit about the Emancipation Proclamation. Speakers include a VOA narrator; Berl I. Bernhard, Staff Director of the United States Commission on Civil Rights; Reverend Francis B. Sayre, Jr., Dean of the Washington National Cathedral; Charles H. Wesley, President of Central State College in Wilberforce, Ohio; Attorney General of the United States Robert F. Kennedy; and Reverend J.H. Jackson, minister at the Olivet Baptist Church in Chicago, IL, and President of the National Baptist Convention. Accession MR-1969-009.
Sound recording
United States Information Agency Audio Recordings Collection
USIAAU-008
Sound recording of an address before the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia delivered at the Willard Hotel, Washington, D.C., on February 10, 1962, by Director of the United States Information Agency (USIA) Edward R. Murrow. Director Murrow pays tribute to former President Abraham Lincoln and describes the examples he set. He notes that it is the year marking the hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and discusses civil rights in the United States, the legacy of slavery and the Civil War, and continuing challenges to equality for African Americans. He discusses emerging nations in Africa. He briefly mentions a recent announcement by President John F. Kennedy of his intention to appoint the first African American to sit in the President's Cabinet. Accession MR-1972-096-008.
Sound recording
White House Audio Collection
JFKWHA-128-002
Sound recording of President John F. Kennedy’s remarks recorded for a ceremony commemorating the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation held at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. In his speech President Kennedy discusses the progress concerning racial relations since the 19th century, but reminds his audience that the Emancipation Proclamation was the beginning of the struggle towards absolute equality, and much remains to be done to eliminate segregation and discrimination.