"Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph."
– Haile Selassie I
Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day [1] , Jubilee Day, Cel-Liberation Day, is an American holiday that commemorates June 19, 1865. On this day, after almost two and half years since the implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation, enslaved African Americans were informed of their liberation from the slavery present in the former Confederate States of America. Texas was the most remote of the slave states, and the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, was not enforced there until after the Civil War had ended.The name of the observance is a portmanteau of "June" and "nineteenth", the date of its celebration.
At first celebration involved church-centered community gatherings in Texas. It spread across the South and became more commercialized in the 1920s and 1930s. Often the centerpiece was a food festival. A third stage was reached in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, when the focus became the story of struggle for postwar civil rights. The 1970s saw a fourth stage, which returned the focus to African American freedom and arts. By the 21st century Juneteenth was celebrated in most major cities across the United States. Activists are pushing Congress to recognize Juneteenth as a national holiday. Juneteenth is recognized as a state holiday or special day of observance in 46 of the 50 states.
Observance is primarily in local celebrations. Traditions include public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, singing traditional songs such as "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and "Lift Every Voice and Sing", and reading of works by noted African-American writers such as Ralph Ellison and Maya Angelou. Celebrations include rodeos, street fairs, cookouts, family reunions, park parties, historical reenactments, or Miss Juneteenth contests. The Mascogos, descendants of Black Seminoles, of Coahuila, Mexico also celebrate Juneteenth.
During the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, with an effective date of January 1, 1863. It declared that all enslaved persons in the Confederate States of America in rebellion and not in Union hands were to be freed. This excluded the five states known later as border states, which were the four "slave states" not in rebellion – Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and Missouri – and those counties of Virginia soon to form the state of West Virginia, and also the three zones under Union occupation: the state of Tennessee, lower Louisiana, and Southeast Virginia.
More isolated geographically, Texas was not a battleground, and thus the people held there as slaves were not affected by the Emancipation Proclamation unless they escaped. Planters and other slaveholders had migrated into Texas from eastern states to escape the fighting, and many brought enslaved people with them, increasing by the thousands the enslaved population in the state at the end of the Civil War. Although most enslaved people lived in rural areas, more than 1,000 resided in both Galveston and Houston by 1860, with several hundred in other large towns.By 1865, there were an estimated 250,000 enslaved people in Texas.
The news of General Robert E. Lee's surrender on April 9 reached Texas later in the month.The Army of the Trans-Mississippi did not surrender until June 2.On June 18, Union Army General Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston Island with 2,000 federal troops to occupy Texas on behalf of the federal government. The following day, standing on the balcony of Galveston's Ashton Villa, Granger read aloud the contents of "General Order No. 3", announcing the total emancipation of those held as slaves:
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. [17]
"The basic tenet of black consciousness is that the black man must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic humanity.”
-Steven Biko
Do White Mothers Cry?
(Dedicated to the Black mothers of murdered sons and daughters for breathing in charcoal skin)
Do white mothers cry?
Do white mothers rejoice and panic at the birth of sons?
Do white mothers fear son deaths?
Do white mothers pray with and for sons and male loved ones
before sending them out into the world?
Do white mothers give instructions to sons for navigating a society which hates and fears them?
Do white mothers teach sons how to avoid and stay alive in the presence of snarling police officers, human hunting vigilantes and other historical known threats?
Do white mothers see police officers as their heroes and protectors while those with charcoal skin see terrorists?
Do white mothers teach sons how to become invisible
when walking, jogging, driving, laughing, and breathing?
Do white mothers spend their waking hours worrying if their sons and male loved ones will return home safely? Hearts pounding at every knock at the door or ring of the doorbell.
Do white mothers tears stain heart and pillow?
Do white mothers screams grieve aching wombs?
Do white mothers gardens grow dead sons?
Do white mothers gardens grow dead sons?
This Black woman, sister, aunt, cousin and friend wants to know do white mothers cry?
©Lorraine Currelley 2012-2020. All Rights Reserved.
#BlackLivesMatter was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives.
Silence
Do not rest comfortably.
Silence grants entitlement and privilege for some and injustice for others.
Silence is complacency. Going along to get along with family, friends
and colleagues.
Silence justifies brutality and murder in protection of privilege.
Silence whispers freedom for us and chains for those wearing charcoal skin.
Silence an unfaithful whore assures our safety and that we get to breathe
while others don‘t.
Silence is laughing and condoning racial slurs, fueling fires of generational blind justice.
Words tearing skin from bone. I can’t breathe.Words pressing knees to neck. I can’t breathe.
Words jogging. I can’t breathe.
Words bird watching. I can’t breathe.
Words sitting at home. I can’t breathe.
Words swimming I can’t breathe.
Words driving. I can’t breathe.
Words car stopped. I can’t breathe.
Words children selling water to go to Disneyland. I can’t breathe.
Words a Black man strategically wearing light clothing and crossing to the opposite side of the street on evening errands when a White woman turns hearing footsteps behind her. Knowing her mood can result in his death.
Words breathing. I can’t breathe.
Words pleading. I can’t breathe.
I can’t ….
©Lorraine Currelley June 01, 2020. All Rights Reserved
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqHnARjmCVI
Harriet Tubman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Fu2fGU4aY4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZfcc21c6Uo
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/28/opinion/sunday/ida-b-wells-lynching-black-women.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZfcc21c6Uo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX3AVaZB9Rg
Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture
https://www.nypl.org/locations/schomburg
Equal Justice Initiative Museum and Memorial
https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/
Schomburg Center Black Liberation Reading List
https://www.nypl.org/blog/2020/06/09/schomburg-center-black-liberation-reading-list
Hatchette Book Group
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/landing-page/antiracism-reading-lists/?utm_source=Hachette+Book+Group+Newsletters&utm_c
African American Literature Book Club
aalbc.com
National Museum of African American History and Culture Talking about Race
https://nmaahc.si.edu/about/news/national-museum-african-american-history-and-culture-releases-talking-about-race-web