This is an opinion column.
Of course, it should be a state holiday.
In 2012, Alabama, spurred by legislation sponsored by Sen. Hank Sanders, became the 40th state to “recognize” Juneteenth. It was a noble move, at the time. The day is now “recognized’ in some form by 47 of our United States.
These times are different, of course.
This week, amid the national awakening to the value of Black lives, governors in Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania and Oregon either declared Juneteenthan official state holiday or said they will move to do.
Before then, only Texas honored Juneteenth as a state holiday. Of course.
Why do we have to wait, yet again, to pull up the rear--if, of course, at all?
Juneteenth has for generations been celebrated by African Americans. It falls, as almost everybody knows now, on June 19th, the date in 1865 when Union Gen. Garner Gordon arrived in Texas and informed slaves in the state that they were free.
This happened, of course, two-and-half years after the Emancipation Proclamation officially made slaves free, on January 1, 1863. No one really knows why it took so long for Texas to get the word. Some say, well, news just traveled slow in those days. Some say a messenger was murdered en route. Some say Union troops were not yet formidable enough to enforce the new law against the Confederacy’s last holdouts.
Who knows? No one, of course. No matter—on June 19, 1865, it was a wrap.
Here’s part of the Order 3 read by Gen. Gordan, once, of course, he arrived in Texas—with backup.
"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."
“…absolute equality of personal rights …”
It took two-and-a-half years for those words to reach Texas. One hundred and fifty-five years later—the words give me pause. Because we’re still not quite there, of course.
“… the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.”
These words actually made me chuckle. Last night I was a slave, this morning a hired employee? Uh, I quit!
The former slaves were only free-ish, of course. Many, uh, turned in their resignations and got the heck out of there—as did former slaves throughout the South, including Alabama. Of course.
Many went to places like Arkansas, Louisiana and what was then Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in search of relatives, family members bought and sold and separated, like the property, of course, the nation deemed them to be. Some arrived in Indian Territory and remained, welcomed by these new people of color—many of whom were forced there, of course, during yet another of our nation’s ugliest transgressions: The Trail of Tears.
Between the 1830s and 1840s, federal troops, with the approval of Presidents Andrew Jackson and later Martin Van Buren, drove upwards of 125,000 Native Americans from their lands in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida and, of course, Alabama, and made them trek—some by foot—some 1,200 miles to Indian Territory.
Why? Because white settlers wanted the valuable land to grow cotton.
Of course.
The Trail runs 5,403 miles and traverses 11 states. Up to 6,000 Native Americans were said to have died along the way. Among those who survived were likely my ancestors. Though I’ve not been able to trace them specifically, my family’s veins are known to contain Cherokee blood—borne of an apparent union between a former slave and Native American likely 150 years ago.
This president, of course, had never heard of Juneteenth. He said “nobody” ever heard of it. Wrong, unless, of course, we don’t actually matter.
Of course, no one in the president’s bloodline was ever emancipated so why would he know of Juneteenth? Maybe he skipped that history class where it was thoroughly taught.
Just kidding, of course.
Black people acknowledged and variously celebrated Juneteenth for decades. It was, and still is, a day of celebration. Though truthfully, for a time—during decades of Jim Crow—Juenteeth some of the celebrations were mixed. Even muted by some.
In still-segregated Tulsa, Oklahoma, Juneteenth was the one day of the year when “public” facilities where Blacks were not welcomed opened to us. Last Friday, my cousin, the oldest daughter of the late Rev. James Castina Jackson, an unabashed civil rights activist/preacher in Tulsa, shared a Juneteenth childhood memory on social media:
“We were Negroes then,” she wrote. “Lakeview Amusement Park actually comes to mind. Of course, we wanted to go so we could get on the rides. But Daddy would always say “No, if you can’t go the other 364 days of the year, you certainly won’t be going today”.
Uncle James didn’t play. Not one bit.
Of course, now Juneteenth should be a state holiday in Alabama. We celebrate, after all, Robert E. Lee’s birthday. Commemorating the emancipation of those he fought to enslave, well, it’s the least we can do.
Of course.
I’m hopeful it will happen.
I’m hopeful after last Friday after joining a true tapestry of Birmingham celebrating Juneteenth at Kelly Ingram Park.
In January, state Rep. Thomas Jackson, D-Thomasville, introduced a bill calling for the third Saturday in June to become Juneteenth National Freedom Day. Like most non-budget matters during the last legislative session, it went nowhere.
Now, in these times, I’m hopeful our state lawmakers—lawmakers on both sides of that tiresome political aisle—deem it worthy of passage.
I’m hopeful our governor deems it worthy. Now, because it matters. Because we matter.
In Alabama. Of course.
A voice for what’s right and wrong in Birmingham, Alabama (and beyond), Roy’s column appears in The Birmingham News and AL.com, as well as in the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register. Reach him at rjohnson@al.com and follow him at twitter.com/roysj
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