Remember the black pioneers who ended slavery

(Marvin Joseph | The Washington Post) This is a petition that was used to free slaves in Washington, D.C. In 2012, in commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the D.C. Emancipation Act, the National Archives shared rarely seen original records pertaining to the Act, including petitions from slaves. When we remember the end of slavery, we tend to give credit to white politicians arguing over the Emancipation Proclamation in Washington, D.C., or to a white general telling enslaved people in Texas that they are free (the moment marked by Juneteenth, the annual commemoration of emancipation being celebrated today).

But these images are incomplete. They leave out the African Americans who had…