Elizabeth Proctor Thomas was an emancipated African American who owned a farm that became part of Fort Stevens. While her home was being dismantled by German-speaking workers with whom she could not communicate, she sat on a hill nearby with her 6 month-old child, weeping. A person came up and said he knew it was hard but in the fullness of time she would be rewarded. The person was President Abraham Lincoln.
Thomas was a presence at the fort, striking up a friendship with Lincoln (he visited often as his cottage was nearby) and held a place of honor by the veterans who fought there. Fort Stevens proved key to the defense of Washington when late in the war Robert E. Lee tried a desperate attack on the capital from the north. The Confederate Army crossed the Potomac and arched north of Washington eventually trying to enter the city coming down near what is now Georgia Avenue. Battle was joined at Fort Stevens with President Lincoln present. Indeed, a bullet pierced his top hat and Oliver Wendell Holmes pulled him down to safety. Thomas is also reported to have called out to get Lincoln out of the line of fire, joining Holmes in referring to him as a fool to allow himself to get in harms way. See here. Lincoln was unharmed and the Union troops repelled the Confederates and the Capital was saved. Some of those who fought are shown below joined by Elizabeth Proctor Thomas.
Lincoln had referenced a reward which was to be in the form of compensation to Thomas for the use of her farm in the defense of Washington. Thomas said throughout the later decades of the 19th Century that she was sure she would have gotten such a reward had Lincoln not been assassinated. But instead her compensation was held up time and again. It is unclear if she ever was compensated but if she was it was at a far lower level than anticipated and decades after the fact. Still, she thrived and was know into the 20th Century as the Mayor of Brightwood.
In the 1920's the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (see here) created Lincoln-Thomas Day to celebrate Thomas and the unlikely friendship and alliance with Lincoln. It was briefly a significant holiday, particularly in the African American community. At the center of the holiday was the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by African American children in schools around the country and at Fort Stevens itself.
The fact that the holiday was created in the 1920s and revived in this era is particularly meaningful. During the 1920's, the KKK was on the rise. The 1920’s saw very significant Klan rallies in DC (see here) and the KKK reached the height of its power with 4 million members nationwide in 1926. In the meantime, in the preceding years, President Wilson had dismantled much of the African-American federal workforce bringing to an end an era of relative prosperity for many African Americans in the District.
The first Lincoln-Thomas Day preceded the big Klan events in DC (see here for a flyer announcing that event) but came in the run up to them at a time when the KKK was establishing a higher and higher profile. The idea that in that context, the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs would come up with the Lincoln-Thomas holiday is a testament to their resourcefulness. With few options before them, they chose to answer darkness with light. In the mid 1920’s, the positive and celabratory Lincoln Thomas Day in mid-September came in close proximity to the big KKK rallies in Washington in August and September.
In the 2010’s, the Military Road School Preservation Trust (MRSPT) (see here) brought the holiday back to life. Students at the Military Road School celebrated the holiday into the 1950s. It resonated deeply for them. Decades later, they brought it back to life.
Lincoln Thomas Day will be celebrated September 20, 2025 from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm at Fort Stevens, 6001 13th Street, NW (13th and Quackenbos Streets, NW). I look forward to being one of the speakers at the event.
Pat Tyson of the MRSPT, alumni of the Military Road School (in the picture above) and Elizabeth Proctor Thomas reenactor welcoming participants at a recent Lincoln Thomas Day celebration.
The Lincoln-Thomas Day celebration resonates on many levels. Elizabeth Proctor Thomas' accomplishment and sacrifice, the friendship between Lincoln and Thomas, the unfilled promises following emancipation, the ugliness of the rise of the KKK (tragically being echoed on our political landscape today), the beauty of the response of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs in the 1920's, and the similar beauty of the work of the Military Road School Preservation Trust to revive the holiday with pride today, to name a few. All of these things offer important lessons for us today in what feel like equally challenging times
Come enjoy the celebration with music, a wreath-laying, brief speeches and a reading of the Emancipation Proclamation and show your support for the values reflected by Lincoln, Thomas, the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs and Military Road School Preservation Trust.
Saturday, September 20, 2025
11:00 am - 1:00 pm
Fort Stevens — 13th and Quackenbos Streets NW