Juneteenth or Freedom Day, is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery. It was on June 19, 1865 that Union soldiers, led by Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, landed in Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that all slaves were free. Seventy-five years later, Archer Alexander is the second African American to be featured on a U.S. Postal Stamp commemorating the event.The Thirteenth Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865, when Georgia became the twenty-seventh state to approve it out of the then-total thirty-six states. On October 20, 1940, the U.S. Postal Service issued this stamp with the image of Archer Alexander with President Abraham Lincoln on the Emancipation Memorial. The stamp was issued by the U.S. Postal Service in honor of the 75th Anniversary of Congress’ ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment which states “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”The monument is located in Lincoln Park in Washington, D.C., was dedicated on April 14th, 1876, on the 11th Anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination. The monument was funded entirely by formerly enslaved, freedmen, and U.S. Colored Troops of the Union Army as a memorial to Lincoln. Archer Alexander who was also known as the last fugitive slave was emancipated by Lincoln on September 24, 1863, for his heroic actions and services to the United States Military services. See ArcherAlexander.blog

The Constitution does not require presidential signatures on amendments, but Lincoln added his, making it the only constitutional amendment to be later ratified that was signed by a President.