Juneteenth

Greetings,

      Today is Juneteenth.  Given our busy schedule this month, we are not having the little celebrations of events and birthdays which we like to have, so we did not have a party this year.  However, we certainly join with our compatriots in celebrating all that this day represents.

      Juneteeneth or June 19, 1865, is considered the date when the last slaves in America were freed. Although the rumors of freedom were widespread prior to this, actual emancipation did not come until General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas and issued General Order No. 3, on June 19, 1865, almost two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.  The purpose of those who celebrate this day is "To bring all Americans together to celebrate our common bond of freedom through the recognition, observance and historic preservation of Juneteenth in America."   Many consider this the observance of America's 2nd Independence Day Celebration, the "19th of June,” Juneteenth Independence Day in America. 

            Frederick Douglass wrote (about 1855):

      “What to the American slave is your Fourth of July?  I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.  To him your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty an unholy license; your national greatness, your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parades and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.”

      Juneteenth completes the cycle of Independence Day Celebrations in America, in the typical reversal of things which we see so often in the Gospels, beginning with the "4^th of July" and ending with the "19^th of June.”

      Juneteenth first became a state holiday in Texas.  Since then, many states have recognized it.  In the 1940s and 1950s the observance of it lessened, but with the Civil Rights Movement, the day was again lifted up.  In the 1970s and 80s it faded again, but since the 1990s there has again been a renewal of interest in Juneteenth.  Unfortunately there are always those people who use any celebration as the occasion for excessive misbehavior, but the positive message of the end of slavery and the need to recognize the rights of all people is a message to teach to our children and to celebrate throughout our society. 

Juneteenth is a day that stands for the dignity and equality of all citizens, regardless of race, so that all may share the blessings of freedom that America provides. — George W. Bush, presidential message, 2005

We Rose

From Africa’s heart, we rose

Already a people, our faces ebon, our bodies lean,

We rose

Skills of art, life, beauty and family
Crushed by forces we knew nothing of, we rose

Survive we must, we did,
We rose

We rose to be you, we rose to be me,
Above everything expected, we rose

To become the knowledge we never knew,
We rose

Dream, we did
Act we must

Kristina Kay  © 1996, Juneteenth.com

      As we have been talking about the qualities of leadership, this day always reminds me of the times when leaders of both political parties were able to work together to pass meaningful legislation and Constitutional amendments, and to exhibit real leadership through the use of Presidential Proclamations.  How we miss the leadership of Everett Dirksen and Lyndon Johnson (what an unlikely pair).

Yours & His,

DED