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Juneteenth Celebration Expands Despite Bush's Silence
Thursday, June 1, 2006
(Washington, DC) - My daddy was from Texarkana, Texas. I had the occasion to visit there a few times and, as a small child, when I visited I always enjoyed doing what he told me you could only do in Texarkana, and that was to stand in front of the old post office on State Line Avenue with one foot in Arkansas and the other in Texas. It was cool knowing that I could physically be in two places at once. That is the gist of the story of how his hometown got its name – TEXas, ARKansas and Louis ANA, which is located just about 25 miles away.
I didn’t spend a lot of time in Texarkana, but I always loved hearing my father talk about growing up there. It was truly a history lesson for me because his stories were usually funny although they reminded him and taught me that he grew up in a racist place at a very racist time in America.
It was he who first educated me about Juneteenth. It was a time of celebration but to him, it was a reminder of how mean racist White people could really be.
On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which is credited with ending slavery in the United States. However, according to the National Archives website, the Emancipation Proclamation “did not immediately free a single slave, [although] it fundamentally transformed the character of the [Civil] war.”
It was not until June 19, 1865 that Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas with the news that the war had ended and that all slaves were to be freed. It took two and a half years for Texans to get the news and for generations, some, including my dad, believed the news was deliberately withheld in order for slaveholders to continue to benefit from the free labor.
Over the years, Texans all across the country have remembered this story and shared it with local school districts, legislators and the media, in an effort to create local, state and even a federal holiday celebrating Juneteenth.
Ward 5 Councilmember Vincent Orange (D) went further and had the nation’s first Emancipation Day – April 16, 1982 – declared a local holiday in honor of the day the slaves were freed in Washington, D.C. The abolishment of slavery in the District of Columbia failed as an experiment by Congress for freeing slaves across the nation. The law “provided for immediate emancipation, compensation of up to $300 for each slave to loyal Unionist masters, voluntary colonization of former slaves to colonies outside the United States, and payment of up to $100 to each person choosing immigration. As a result, the federal government paid almost $1 million for the freedom of 3,100 former slaves,” according to the D.C. Emancipation Day website. Note that the slaves in D.C. were freed nearly 9 months before Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and more than three years before the slaves in Texas were told slavery had ended.
Over the years states—including Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Delaware, Idaho, Alaska, Iowa, California, Wyoming, Missouri, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, Arkansas, Kentucky and Michigan—have recognized Juneteenth as a state holiday or state holiday observance. The celebration is also recognized internationally with countries like Ghana, Israel, Japan, Italy, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Germany and Guam among those that hold Juneteenth or Emancipation Day observances recognizing the abolition of slavery globally and celebrating the cultural contributions of African Americans.
This year marks the Seventh Annual Washington Juneteenth National Holiday Observance which will be held in the nation’s capital on June 17. Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D., is chair of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation. He is allied with Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.) who chairs the National Juneteenth Congressional Committee and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) who is scheduled to host the U.S. Capitol Juneteenth Congressional Reception. The three, along with a cadre of supporters, are urging President George W. Bush, a Texan, to issue a special Presidential Proclamation recognizing Juneteenth Independence Day. According to Rev. Myers, a Baptist minister from Tchula, Mississippi, “President Bush, who had declined participation in the annual…observance since taking office in 2000, has perplexed national Juneteenth leaders by the lack of personal public acknowledgement and comment on Juneteenth, considered America’s second Independence Day.”
"President Bush is the former Governor of Texas, where Juneteenth has been observed as a paid state holiday since 1980," said Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr. "With the urging of Congress through the unanimous passage of H. Con. Res.160 by the House of Representatives last year, we are hopeful that President Bush will finally issue a Juneteenth Independence Day proclamation in 2006.”
“He [Bush] participates in the 4 th of July and Jewish Holocaust observances, and he even held a Cinco de Mayo observance at the White House,” Rev. Myers said. “We want him to be personally involved and he should address the nation on Juneteenth.”
The date will also recognize the Fifth Annual Black Holocaust National Day of Reconciliation and Healing for the Legacy of Slavery, marked by the date in 2000 when Congressman Tony Hall (D-Oh.) introduced legislation for Congress to apologize for slavery. The observance was fashioned after the KiSwahili word “maafa,” which means a terrible occurrence or great disaster.
Regardless of the President’s participation, Rev. Myers said Americans will continue with their plans to celebrate Juneteenth. Yet, his anger and frustration reminds me so much of my dad’s.
If President Bush issues a message, much like the one he does for Kwanzaa and other special occasions, Rev. Myers said, “We’ve gotten to the point that a presidential message would be an insult. The entire House of Representatives have asked him to respond, and he does not respond. Go figure.”
For more information about Juneteenth, visit Rev. Myers’ site at www.juneteenth.us or visit www.juneteenth.com.
Denise Rolark Barnes, publisher of The Washington Informer, hosts Reporters Roundtable which airs on DCTV Channel 16 weekdays at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. She can be reached at drbarnes@washingtoninformer.com.
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