Juneteenth Awareness Walk

Other names I have heard used for Juneteenth were Juneteenth Freedom Day or Juneteenth Independence Day. Juneteenth is recognized by many Americans of African descendants as America's second independence day since most of their African ancestors were not free after America celebrated its independence from Great Britain. It would be another 89 years after 1776 before African, and African Americans, still living in slavery, would be able would truly celebrate their independence in America.

Not long after I first learned about the Juneteenth Day Celebration I learned that there was also an ongoing movement in this country to make Juneteenth a national holiday. Over the years since then, I have watched more and more states make Juneteenth an official state holiday. Now that 46 states in this country recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday, a woman from Forth Worth Texas, by the name of Opal Lee, has decided to do a Juneteenth Awareness Walk Detroit where the Democratic Presidential hopefuls will be having their debate to bring attention to her personal campaign to make Juneteenth a national holiday.

The 92-year-old also is no stranger to using her legs and stamina to make her point, she walked a couple years ago in an attempt to get the attention of President Obama and the Congress, back in 2016, and if all goes well Opal will launch a Change.org petition to make Juneteenth a National Day of Observance this coming fall. She will kick off her 2020 campaign to get the Juneteenth legislation passed and put in some more walking miles to achieve her goal.

I believe that making space on the national calendar for this particular holiday (Juneteenth) would go along way toward improving race relations in this country. Just as the first step to solving the race problem is admitting that there is a race problem. The first step of healing the physiological and economic wounds of slavery might just be becoming comfortable with the fact that there was once slavery in this country to begin a national dialogue.

Taught on a national basis it might not be all that bad for people to learn that not all white people had slaves and that not all black people were slaves. Or that for the slave on-the-run not all white people were bad, and not all black people were good. If the Juneteenth Day Celebration becomes a reminder of these things I believe that would be some helpful history. We should be able to learn the history behind people, places, and things that made up America's second Independence Day.

So it goes without saying that I support Opal Lee's quest to bring more attention to making Juneteenth a national holiday. And the fact now that we're up to 47 states officially celebration Juneteenth, with about 5 states to go, it is quite possible that every state in the union will be celebrating Juneteenth as a state holiday and when that happens, even if the lawmakers in Washington haven't made up their collective minds, Juneteenth will be a national holiday.

If you have questions like why is it called Juneteenth, are looking for Juneteenth quotes, Juneteenth food ideas, a Juneteeth flag, or just some friendly Juneteenth facts be sure to see some of the other posts on this blog?

40 Acres and a Mule

When African Americans joined the Union Army to fight in the Civil War the government promised them 40 acres of land and one mule. Back in those days being given a mule was a little like being given a pickup truck. After the Civil War ended and the formation of the Juneteenth celebration black American and African American soldiers tried to claim the land and livestock promised to them by the government and were denied. What followed was a reconstruction that saw a system put in place to make sure that African Americans would own very little in the south.

After the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the government's attitude toward the promises made when Lincoln was alive would sour until many of the more meaningful promises were rescinded.  Fast forward a little over 150 years, and a descendant of a Georgian slave and Civil War soldier by the name of Elijah Brown would have his great-grandson take up his cause. Elijah's great-grandson, Abraham Brown, filed a lawsuit against the federal government over the broken promise made to his great grandfather and 1800 other black civil war soldiers for their service in the Union Army during the Civil War.

The lawsuit was filed in 2011 and took until this year, 2019, to be settled. In a Supreme Court vote of 5-4, the Browns were awarded a big win when the Supreme Court ruled that the United States must honor the promise made to union soldiers for their service. Abraham Brown, on behalf of his great grandfather Elijah Brown, was awarded 40 acres and a mule.

The headline on this story really caught my attention, Supreme Court grants Black Man 40 acres and a mule! To be honest I had always thought that 40 acres and a mule were what reparations were all about. So were we always talking about reparations for those who served in the civil war military? Looks like I have some more reading to do. Meantime I will try to keep up with this story, it would be nice to find out what the younger (61-year-old) Abraham Brown plans to do with his 40 acres of land.

I would prefer 40 acres and a Chevy Silverado Pickup Truck because these days the fuel might actually be cheaper, for the truck. I don't think any of us should overlook the history just made by Mr. Abraham Brown and the U.S. Supreme Court. I would encourage the rest of us to look more closely at our family's Ancestors-Dot-Com information to determine whether or not your family name is one of the other 1800 African American families this Civil War promise was made to, there just might be 40 acres and a mule in your future.

Juneteenth Pennsylvania

Hats off to Governor Thomas Westerman Wolf and the state of Pennsylvania for making the Juneteenth Celebration a state holiday. On June 19th, 2019 the State of Pennsylvania joined the growing list of states in this country that recognize Juneteenth as a State Holiday.

When it comes to Pennsylvania and slavery what is now known as the state of Pennsylvania, back in the late 1600s was known as the Delaware Valley. When the Dutch and Swedes first established their colonies there. As early as 1639 slavery can be documented in the Delaware Valley.  It would be the German and Quaker immigrants that would speak out against slavery back then and they would be joined in their slavery protest by the Methodist and Baptists whose preaching to the slaveholders would fall upon deaf ears for the next few hundred years.

After the American Revolutionary War in 1776, the Gradual Abolition Act would be passed in Pennsylvania. The 1780 law established that children born to a slave mother after the year 1780 would be born free. The way the Gradual Abolition Act was written offered a brand of freedom that took effect at the age of 28 years at which time children born to a slave mother were to be set free after years of indentured servitude.

The abolition of slavery was celebrated in Pennsylvania in 1865 when the news about the end of slavery finally went public in the north and in the south and appeared in all the news media available at that time. From that day on, up to and including the state's 154th celebration of Juneteenth the state of Pennsylvania has celebrated the Juneteenth tradition. The 2019 Juneteenth Day Celebration stands out because this year the celebration was made into a state holiday; ensuring that Juneteenth history and tradition will continue to be recognized and passed on to future generations of Americans.

What was celebrated at the time as the end of slavery in the south was soon followed by a celebration of the passage of the 13th Amendment which plugged the loophole in the Emancipation Proclamation (to free all the slave in confederate held areas) by formally abolishing slavery throughout all of the states, north, and south.

So thank you Pennsylvania, from the Juneteenth Day 1 Blog, for becoming yet another state to recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday, and for 154 years of keeping the Juneteenth tradition alive. There is still a move on to make Juneteenth a national holiday and it seems to be happening one state at a time.

The Juneteenth Awakening

The Juneteenth Awakening, when was your awakening to Juneteenth? When did you first learn about the Juneteenth Day Celebration? I would venture to guess that if polled at least 75 percent of black Americans still haven's heard about Juneteenth, and if I increase the poll audience to include everyone, black and white the number of people unaware of Juneteenth history goes up closer to 80 or 90 percent. You would think that such an important historical event would have been front and center in my school history book, but, when I was a child Juneteenth was not mentioned in my elementary, Jr. High, or High School history book and for sure it wasn't a subject covered in any of my history classes up to and including college.

It's really easy to suffer from the feeling of entitlement and superiority when you grow up believing that you/your race has invented, created, discovered, and built everything on earth. Especially when those promoted facts are presented in the history books you go to school to learn from. Luckily in this day and age, historic facts about African and African American accomplishments are starting to leak out and nowadays that also includes information and facts about the Juneteenth Day Celebration.

In my case, I really can't put all the blame on the places of education I have attended over my lifetime. Both of my parents were from the south one from the very state where Juneteenth was memorialized on June 19, 1865. I had always heard that my parents left the south for a better life, but I had always thought that meant moving from the farm to the big city, when in reality what those words really meant was not wanting to raise their children in the Jim Crow south. (thank you, aunt Opal, for that info)

The fact that the work was plentiful, and paid better during WWII was also a BIG PLUS. Juneteenth may have come from the south (Texas) but during the 50s and the Civil Rights 60s, Juneteenth Celebrations were held to a minimum, if at all. Whatever their reason my parents, who were from Juneteenth country, never mentioned the Juneteenth celebration to any of us children.

So my Juneteenth Awakening would be almost 38 years in coming. Prior to that, I would certainly have failed the poll question: "have you ever heard of the oldest African American Celebration in the nation Juneteenth?"

My hope is that as more Americans become aware of the Juneteenth Celebration and that the celebration celebrated by some states becomes a national holiday. Juneteenth history should be taught in schools so that generations of black and white Americans will be made aware of the sacrifices and plight of the African ancestors so that all of their African descendants still suffering from racism will not only remember their struggle but learn how to better use some of the advances African Americans have already made and as a nation go after racism the same way this nation went after slavery.

I also hope that our history doesn't forget about all of the white abolitionists who were instrumental in putting an end to slavery by maintaining the underground railroad that transported runaway slaves to freedom until it was no longer needed for the clandestine system and for helping to create the oldest African American Celebration in this nation, Juneteenth.