Celebrating Juneteenth at Home

 Celebrating Juneteenth at home

In these Covid-19 crazy days depending on what area of the U.S. you're in gathering in large groups may still be on a shelter in place basis. Juneteenth is celebrated in black communities throughout the United States and in other parts of the world. Juneteenth had been celebrated on a regular basis until the coronavirus happened. This past year most outdoor large-scale gatherings for the Juneteenth holiday were canceled, and several went virtual.

The drive continues to make the Juneteenth celebration a national holiday, but this year I am encouraging a stay-at-home Juneteenth celebration if a large gathering Juneteenth celebration is forbidden in your area. A Juneteenth celebration for family and friends with red-velvet cake, and strawberry soda, or whatever red food you choose. For those of you familiar with the Juneteenth celebration you know that red food and drink are very popular on Juneteenth.

Enjoying this day of freedom, the June 19th, 1865 day of independence for the slaves turned free people, and after the passage of the 14th Amendment, a citizen of this nation with equal protection under the law. We celebrate Juneteenth for all of the ancestors who lived and died, praying for a day of freedom they would never see. It's too bad racism didn't end when slavery did, and while the racism itself might not have come as a surprise to our ancestors the fact that racism is growing in this day and age rather than subsiding might surely have held some surprise.

But as the ancestors' dealt with slavery and racism, today their descendants the African American people of today are left only to contend with racism. Like the Africans, African Americans, and the abolitionist worked together to bring slavery to an end, that work, and us African American, abolitionist, and politicians now needed to gather those same energies to combat racism. So to me, Juneteenth is both a poignant reminder of the past and a way to remind us all, on each June 19th, that because of racism there is still much work that needs to be done organizing and creating opportunities for all those that racism is hurting.

If you've ever attended a Juneteenth celebration then I don't need to tell you that a Juneteenth celebration at home can not be compared to the food, drink, community, and excitement an outdoor festival style Juneteenth celebration can offer. But it can offer family and friends tired of sheltering in place a way to gather and a chance to honor all the ancestors before us and with good food and drink, family and friends make June 19th, 1865 a day worth remembering and celebrating.

Heroes of the Colored Race

 Back in 1865, the heroes of the colored race were black, white, northerners and southerners who not only championed the cause of freedom for all but in many cases took the extra step to make emancipation happen for some slaves. Many of these heroes worked tirelessly to change the laws associated with slavery and to assist slaves brave enough to purchase their freedom with their life and self emancipate (runaway) on their own. 

It was these heroes who set up and ran the underground railroad, an illegal operation until no longer needed in 1865. Paperwork related to the operation of the underground railroad was well guarded and hidden because to be caught with such records could have meant the loss of your freedom, property, and in some cases your life, especially if you were a black abolitionist.

The Underground Railroad

William Still did manage to maintain the written record of his work on the underground railroad, not only to chronicle the exploits of the runaway slave but in the hope of someday being able to reunite black families torn apart by slavery the way his own family had been separated by the rules of slavery a long time ago.

In fact, one of the runaway slaves that would come William Still's way during his work on the clandestine underground railroad would turn out to be his own brother Peter Still.

Thomas Garrett, a white abolitionist, whose religious-driven antislavery belief had him working on the underground railroad, another hero of the colored race during the days of slavery in this nation. The secret written records Garrett kept would show that he had helped more than twenty-one-hundred slaves escape to freedom. Thomas Garrett was one of the people who were overjoyed about the Juneteenth Day Celebration and the end of slavery in the south.

Garret was hoisted upon the shoulders of a crowd of jubilant black men and carried through the streets of Wilmington Delaware in celebration of the passage of the 15th Amendment, he was carried along by those who saw him as a hero of the colored race. Thomas Garrett was recognized for his work on the underground railroad, his commitment to, and the work within his own community to combat slavery.  

The black history heroes list is long and almost always includes abolitionists like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, the list of unsung heroes I would say is just as long. My hope is that each and every one of the stories associated with the heroes of the colored race will find its way into a manuscript and into a book,  I love reading about this stuff especially keeping in mind today's African American heroes, like our first black female vice-president Kamala Harris.

 

Juneteenth Books Juneteenth Jewelry