Black Broadway, Madame Lillian Evanti and Washington DC’s Black History Black Broadway, Madame Lillian Evanti and Washington DC’s Black History NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent@StacyBrownMedia There’s little question that African Americans have been a significant part of Washington, DC’s civic life and identity since the city was first declared the new national capital in 1791. According to Cultural Tourism DC, African Americans were 25 percent of the population in 1800, and most of them were enslaved. On April 16, 1862, nine months before President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, the U.S. Congress passed the District of Columbia Emancipation Act, making the District of Columbia’s slaves the first freed in the nation.