Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas with the news that the Civil War had ended and that all slaves were now free by executive order in the last of the rebellious states. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the January 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, and two months after the official end of the war. Juneteenth commemorates the actual day that most slaves were finally freed, marking the end of race based chattel slavery in the United States. Ratification of the 13th amendment to the constitution in December 1865 made it official throughout the nation.
The Northside and Manchester Churches of Christ will co-host a Juneteenth Celebration this year. The intent is to provide families with an opportunity to learn about and celebrate this holiday as well as receive an encouraging and hope-filled message from the Word. The program will include a time of education, singing, and of course, food! There is no cost to attend but we do need a head count for meal prep, so please RSVP!
For more information on the history of Juneteenth please read the following excerpt written by one of Manchester’s elders, Charlie Brown.
History leading up to and after Juneteenth by Charlie Brown
Slavery has long existed in history, and it has taken many forms, few of which were benevolent. Many, if not most of the forms of slavery that existed prior to colonization of the West, were the result of enslavement of the losing side from wars. For the slavery practiced in North America, many recognize the year 1619 as a transition to a unique form of race based chattel slavery. Chattel slavery was the most extreme form of slavery in which the enslaved were treated as property. In order to morally justify their practice, enslavers had to deny the humanity of those they enslaved by claiming them to be subhuman or incapable of being members of society. Through this rationalization they continued to practice their personal religion despite this evil practice, even using perverted scriptural applications to justify it. The legacy of this discriminatory attitude still persists in white supremacy advocates today. “Racism is a system of oppression based on race.” (Beverly Daniel Tatum) “There is no biological basis for the superiority or inferiority of any human being based on the amount of melanin in her or his skin.” (Jemar Tisby). We are all created in God’s image.
By the time of the declaration of independence from England in 1776, slavery was firmly established in the colonies. It was primarily practiced in the agricultural South but certainly existed elsewhere. We celebrate July 4,1776 as Independence Day, but that independence or freedom did not extend to enslaved people. Citizenship rights were only given to white males and in many cases only landowners. Women were also excluded from full citizenship. Many of our founding fathers were slave holders, and the compromises made then to make this unified break with England still shape our country. The noble words of the declaration of independence belied the actual practice.
There were always people opposed to slavery, but the abolition movement grew through the early 19th century driven by morality issues, religious awakening, and politics. The importation of slaves from Africa was banned in 1808, but continued covertly until 1860 when the slave ship Clotilda secretly disgorged her human cargo and was burned near Mobile. Slavery and slave trade was still practiced on those already here. Tensions reached a breaking point with the election of the anti-slavery candidate Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Eleven southern states soon seceded from the union in an exercise to preserve states’ rights, but the primary right they wanted to preserve was the continued practice of slavery.
On April 15, 1861, 3 days after the attack on Fort Sumter, Lincoln called up the troops to suppress the rebellion, thus starting the Civil War, and the long civil war nightmare began. Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves on January 1, 1863, but ever the pragmatic politician, Lincoln only applied it to slaves held in the rebellious states to keep his war coalition together. Not surprisingly the rebellious states did not comply until after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Virginia on April 9, 1865. The true emancipation of the slaves began but was not immediate everywhere, notably in Texas. Although the end of the war was surely known, the Texas government led by Governor Pendelton Murrah resisted liberating the more than 250,000 slaves held in Texas. It was not until June 19, 1865, 2 months after Lee’s surrender that the events of Juneteenth occurred with the arrival of 2000 Union troops in Galveston Bay led by Union Army General Gordon Granger. Granger read an executive decree proclaiming freedom from slavery in Texas. Governor Murrah had already fled to Mexico, and the Union troops enforced the decree.
Although Juneteenth generally celebrates the end of slavery in the United States, it was still legal and practiced in two Union border states (Delaware and Kentucky) until later that year when ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution abolished chattel slavery nationwide in December.
Unfortunately that was not the end of the travail. With no money and no land, the freedmen had a difficult time.
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution granting slaves citizenship (but still excluded voting rights to women) was ratified on July 9, 1868, but gradually the repressive Jim Crow Laws were enacted in many states to deny the full rights of citizenship to former slaves. Violent acts of terrorism followed because many refused to accept black people as equal under God.
Discriminatory practices persisted through two world wars into the post war era. Things improved in the civil rights era of the 1960’s with events that occurred within the lifetime of many of us here, but equality is still a thing to be fully achieved.
While Juneteenth is an observation of that particular freedom day in history, it is also an acknowledgement that we all need to continue to work together to treat everyone the same. So it is a call for unity in a quest for equality.
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