By Sonya Bernard-Hollins, Publisher- Community Voices
According to President Donald Trump, had it not been for him, Juneteenth would be as unrecognized as National Hot Dog Day or Take a Pet to School Day! The President’s bold arrogance, however, is not a total lie. When he said he asked those around him if they knew what Juneteenth was, he claims none knew about it. (We won’t mention that his White House aide informed him that his administration has sent out press releases recognizing the Day since he took office and apparently didn’t know it!) But, I digress. In his circle of white, elite billionaires, he may be correct. After all, unless you have a reason for exposure to historical events that may not have ever effected you, or you did not learn in school, you would be oblivious to this liberating, yet, devastating history celebrated on June 19th.
The story actually begins in 1863. It was on January 1st of that year that the Emancipation Proclamation to abolish slavery was enacted by President Abraham Lincoln. It wasn’t as easy as flipping a switch. It would be one of many incidents in America where dragging the feet of justice would become a dance move as popular as the Cha Cha Slide. One example is the desegregation of American schools. While the 1954 Supreme Court ruled to eliminate segregated schools, actions to make it happen would “slide” into practice across the nation. In Kalamazoo, Michigan (not Birmingham, Alabama) it wasn’t until May 6, 1971, that Kalamazoo’s Board of Education officially desegregated its schools. That’s almost 20 years AFTER the ruling by the highest court of the land!
As we live through the protests against police brutality and the killings of unarmed Black men, it is unfortunate that a bill of any sort would have to be created to end this legalized lynching. However, there is a process in this country that often leads to, again, “dragging the feet of justice.” SO, back to Juneteenth. After the Civil War ended in 1865, slave states had lost the fight to continue squeezing free labor generations of African-originated people. It had been these people who literally made millionaires of whites who worked them to death, had their children sold from them and risked death for freedom. The idea to release this free labor was maddening, as so the Confederate states believed.
Freed African Americans left the plantations to seek their own independent lives, others stayed on plantations as sharecroppers; helping work the land for a fraction of what they were helping the farmers produce. But, they were free. Some went to secure land and their own communities. One such being the Greenwood area of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Men and women who had skills and talents used them to provided goods and services to those in communities made up of their own people. As white communities worked to keep them subservient, many made their own way, together. But, along with prosperity, the ugly green eye of racism reared its ugly head and their communities were destroyed. Other communities were overtaken by whites who forced them out, took their land; even at the point of death and lynchings. Juneteenth 1865 had come at a price.
African Americans wanted to become independent and raise their families in peace. When Union Major-General Gordon Granger read General Order No. 3 to the people of Galveston on June 19th, 1865 he stated that while they were free, they had responsibilities and needed to work, even if it were on the plantations. No laziness would be tolerated; not one would GIVE them anything. Here are the official words:
“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.”
Looking through the pages of history, many of us never heard of Juneteenth. Many of the formerly enslaved people who left the plantations and became successful are not celebrated. We do not learn of the inventions created by People of Color who have created items from Dr. Charles Drew who developed the method that would create plasma to save countless lives. Drew himself was victim of a car accident and was not treated with his own blood plasma method as the nearest white hospital would not treat him. We are not taught about Flemmie Kittrell, an African American female chemist who created what we know today as proper nutrition education.
So, yes, thank President Trump. While others have know the history of Juneteenth since it began, there are others who learned why African Americans were outraged at an election rally being held that day, in a place where the country’s worst race riot happened in 1921. Oh…and thanks for that too. Now the country can truly compare the historic past of brutality on African Americans in one city to what has happened in the past weeks with the death of those such as George Floyd. Maybe the arms of justice won’t drag its feet in new efforts to criminalize police brutality. Black lives matter. Thanks, Mr. President. You have truly done it AGAIN!
