LITTLE ROCK — Tom Priest Jr. felt a connection with history as he stood over a 145-year-old piece of paper Saturday at the Clinton library.
"To see the signature," he said, "It's handwritten. It just brought it alive."
Priest, visiting Little Rock from Michigan, felt a similar tingle on his skin while viewing the sculpture of the Little Rock Nine at the state Capitol on Friday.
The coincidence wasn't accidental.
The Emancipation Proclamation is on display through Tuesday at the Clinton Presidential Center in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Central High School crisis.
Abraham Lincoln's proclamation declared that "all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." The document was drafted in 1862 and signed Jan. 1, 1863.
Since the United States government had no control over Confederate states, Lincoln did not technically free slaves there, said Walter Hill, a senior archivist at the National Archives and specialistin black history. The proclamation also didn't affect slaves in the border states loyal tothe North.
However, it was received as a call to slaves to go North and join the Union Army. Some Arkansas blacks began traveling to Missouri to enlist, Hill said in an interview from his Washington office last week.
"That trickle became waves of thousands of slaves," he said. "They were really very much a part of the emancipation."
The proclamation is also regarded as a turning point in the Civil War. Prior to its signing, Lincoln's motivation was to keep the United States whole, Hill said. Afterward, the war became one to end slavery.
"My life became mine because of the Emancipation Proclamation and because of the sacrifices and lives that were put on the line for my freedom," said Lorenzo Ramsey, a mortgage banker and Detroit native visiting Little Rock with his choir, Family and Friends. It was performing over the weekend at Central High-related events.
Ramsey's g randfather moved from Little Rock to Detroit in the 1950s to work at the Ford Motor Co. While looking over the Emancipation Proclamation, Ramsey said he thought of the lives of his ancestors.
"Because of that document," he said, "I'm able to have the job that I have today and live the way I do."
The idea to bring the Emancipation Proclamation to Arkansas during the 50th anniversary of the desegregation crisis at Central High School was sown two or three years ago, said Skip Ruther-ford, dean of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.
At the time, Rutherford was president of the William J. Clinton Foundation and David Alsobrook was director of the Clinton library. They were talking about what the library should do to mark the Central High anniversary.
"David Alsobrook said we should really do something special, something unique, that Arkansas may not have seen before," Rutherford said. "David said you ought to bring the Emancipation Proclamation here. I said, 'That's a terrific idea, how do you do that?'"
Bringing the document to Little Rock required a conversation with U.S. Archivist Allen Weinstein, a formal written request to the National Archives and fundraising by the Clinton Foundation.
Weinstein was in Little Rock Friday for the unveiling of the document.
He said the courage Lincoln showed in signing the proclamation is similar to the bravery displayed by the Little Rock Nine in 1957.
"We saw a degree of moral and civic courage that set an example for the nation and continues to set an example because we are not through with those issues," Weinstein said.
The proclamation is being displayed in the exhibit, "The Long Struggle: Presidential Actions and African-American Civil Rights."
Library curator Christine Mouw said the exhibit was designed to complement the events of the Central High anniversary.
The exhibit highlights how presidents shaped black history, with the Emancipation Proclamation being among the most significant example.
"It's symbolic of what can be done by a president if he puts his mind to it," she said.
Saturday was the 145th anniversary of the day the proclamation was drafted. That impressed 10-year-old Sydney Sample and hergrandmother, Rosemarie Sample.
"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Sydney Sample said.
"I can't believe that Abraham Lincoln actually wrote that," Lauren Suggs, 9, said after emerging from the exhibit. She was visiting with her class from Prairie Grove Elementary School in Fayetteville.
"It gave people courage to continue with the war," 10-year-old Tessa Johnson explained.
The fragile document is only displayed 48 hours each year. Antoinette Johnson, a Little Rockschool bus driver, was proud that Arkansas was home to this year's only exhibition.
"People think such small things about Arkansas," she said, "and so to say we got the Emancipation Proclamation ... it's a great opportunity for the people of Little Rock and Arkansas."
Her friend, Vanessa Horton, a school speech therapist, said she felt inspired and motivated to do better in her life after seeing the Emancipation Proclamation.
"It's beautiful and educational," she said, "and I almost got tears."
Arkansas, Pages 19, 24 on 09/23/2007