Juneteenth

Today I want to talk a little about Juneteenth. I admit I haven't done much research on the Civil War. There are plenty of other researchers who are far more passionate about this war than I am but Juneteenth is an important day, at least in Texan history.



Juneteenth is the day General Gordon Granger landed in Galveston, Texas and read a proclamation. It read "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 employer and hired labor."1 In other words, free the slaves and pay them as employees. Now obviously, this is the result of the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation but the South was stubborn. And with Texas being the Confederate state furthest west at the time, news was quite slow in reaching the state. So slow, it took two and a half years for it to reach Texas though the war ended in April 1965.

There are as usual hundred of reasons why the Emancipation Proclamation didn't make that far. Murder of the messenger, conspiracy in the government, and desire for that year's harvested crops are all suggested as reasons. They could all be true. They could all be false. To me, the harvesting of that year's crops is iffy simply because the Proclamation took TWO years, not one. The most likely reason would be simply the war wasn't over yet. The South and Texas were still part of the Confederacy and had no interest or desire in what the Yankee president wanted. The Confederate States were their own nation. Lincoln simply had no power in the South.

So on June 19th, the order came. The slaves were finally free. Oh there were many many issues to come and be resolved but for now they were free. Juneteenth became a day of celebration with gatherings and prayers and songs. The day even migrated to Louisiana and Oklahoma when the freedmen moved. First, the celebrations were held in rural or church areas but eventually as they became revered landowners and  made their own money, African Americans were able to purchase lands to commemorate the occasion. One such purchase is Emancipation Park in Houston which I will be ashamed to say, I didn't even know still existed. And perhaps therein lies the real problem.

I promised this blog would be uncensored and try to cover all types of horrors. The more I learn, the more I realize that the horrors humans have committed on themselves and others is nothing compared to the horror of forgetting. So much of history is swept under the rug and forgotten. Is it because we are ashamed? Is it because we want to pretend it didn't happen? Both I would say are yes as well as the possibility that the winners are humiliated even as victors. When I was in school, I barely remember Juneteenth being mentioned. Even now, I see very little to commemorate it (though as a white female, I admit I don't exactly look for it). No news of celebrations and in Houston, all the cultural events are advertised as if they are National holidays. For something that was celebrated for decades (at least until the civil rights movement), most problaly have no idea what it is.

According to "The Handbook of Texas Online" website, Juneteenth is a state holiday, signed into law by Governor William Clements, Jr in 1979. So Happy Juneteenth for everyone as we remember that our history is neither fair nor pretty. But it is a part of us and it does affect us, even now.

Sources:

1. Teresa Palomo Acosta, "JUNETEENTH," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lkj01), accessed June 18, 2012. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
https://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ref/abouttx/juneteenth.html
http://www.juneteenth.com/history.htm
Picture is a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation found: http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/lincoln/presidency/CommanderInChief/EmancipationProclamation/ExhibitObjects/EmancipationProclamation.aspx