On April 16, 1862, the District achieved a historic milestone when the Compensated Emancipation Act freed over 3,000 people—months before the nationwide Emancipation Proclamation.

In 1853, nearly a decade before the city’s official emancipation, Anthony Bowen founded the world’s first African American YMCA.

Today, YMCA Anthony Bowen remains a powerful beacon of culture in the Shaw neighborhood, and it continues to foster the leadership and social progress that Bowen envisioned.