Juneteenth

I purposely waited to create and post my blog specifically for this day. While I'm not exactly the guru on all things Juneteenth, I still felt a need to shed some light and share my knowledge with others. Everyone knows about the Emancipation Proclamation (I think) and how it was supposed to be designed to free the slaves. But we'll get into that later. Let's start from the beginning.

July 4th, 1776 is Independence Day. It was the day that White Americans were considered to be free. Enslaved blacks were not. In fact, on July 5th of 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a speech in Rochester, New York questioning the meaning of 4th of July to the American slave. "What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless..." Clearly, Independence Day was not a favor in everyone's eyes. Blacks were still slaves while everyone else celebrated. And it wasn't until almost 100 years later that the Emancipation Proclamation was signed declaring slaves to be free.

January 1st, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves. Kind of. The Emancipation Proclamation granted freedom to the slaves in the Confederate States IF the States did not return to the Union by January 1, 1863. In addition, under this proclamation, freedom would only come to the slaves IF the Union won the war. It was the third year of the bloody civil war when Abraham Lincoln declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." So in all actuality....it only freed few people.

Despite the Emancipation Proclamation being signed and put into effect in 1863, news traveled to Galveston, Texas later. Much later. It wasn't until June 19th, 1865, that the final 250,000 slaves were freed.

"The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere."

Celebrating the 4th of July is a tradition and many traditions are hard to be broken. But celebrating Juneteenth, doesn't mean you can't celebrate or shouldn't celebrate July 4th. It simply means if we're going to recognize history. We're going to recognize ALL history. Happy Juneteenth everyone!