In the car on Friday, my children asked me what Juneteenth meant.
I started by explaining the historical facts as I know them.
900 days after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation January 1, 1963, Union
troops arrived in Galveston, TX at the end of the Civil War June 19th.
1965. Major General Gordon Granger read General Orders No. 3, which finally
informed the 250,000 enslaved people in Texas that they were free.
This moment did not immediately change the conditions for the
formerly enslaved, and many became sharecroppers for the former slave owners.
History Professor Erin Stewart Mauldin reminds, “Individuals had to fight for
every piece of freedom they experienced and the struggle for justice that
started long before the war did not end with emancipation.”
The moment, I remind myself, was my great-great grandfather’s
generation. Four generations before me. Not long ago.
I paused and checked in with my children.
Juneteenth is a moment to be honest about our country’s
history. Not to sugarcoat it, not to erase it, but to embrace the ugly, the
horrific parts of our country.
Juneteenth is a moment to re-commit ourselves to standing
with and for those being erased in this moment – peoples of color, LGBTQ+, women,
the poor. It is a reminder that shackles remain on too many in 2026.
Juneteenth is a moment to stand for science and the planet at
a moment when powerful voices tell us neither are worth standing up for.
Juneteenth is a moment where we can love our country and at
the same time be deeply disturbed over what our country has become and is
becoming.
Juneteenth begs for a patriotism that sees that while
slavery ended, our nation has never been emancipated from the racism that led
to slavery and the genocide of Indigenous peoples.
Juneteenth pleads for us not to celebrate our 250th
in blind, flag-waving, amnesia, singing “America the Beautiful” but rather to see
our country for the traumatized, flawed entity that it is. It asks us to
continue working for political and economic freedom for all peoples, driven by
a hope and belief that America can be beautiful yet.
Thank you for this. We need more of this - all the time. Honestly and fact based history lessons. “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” James Baldwin
ReplyDeleteThe Avett Brothers have a song "We Americans" it's a hard song that disusses some of what you touched on. It speaks of the complexity that is being American. Proud of ideals, but grounded in the reality of what was and what is, and how each of us has the ability to be better.
ReplyDeleteExcellent! Good reminders for all of us!!
ReplyDeleteI love this...it gives truth and hope that the past will not repeat itself. (Just a note....the years were 1863 and 1865 ❣).
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