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?