|
|
Juneteenth
by Archie
P. McDonald |
|
Most
East Texans who have lived here more than at least a month of Sundays
know that African Americans claim June 19, or Juneteenth, as their
own special day to celebrate freedom. Probably whites ought to celebrate
it as well, because freedom for everyone is a good idea, and second,
because the end of slavery blessed whites as well.
But do you know why June 19 is such a special day?
I know one can celebrate without knowing, as I observed among the
black community of Toronto when I visited that Canadian city in June
2002. I know they had no idea why the day was important, other than
as an excuse for a party, because a television interviewer asked some
of the celebrants about it and as close as any could come was a vague
reference to a Union general and Galveston.
Close, as the fella used to say, only counts in a game of pitching
horseshoes. Our history is more precise.
June 19, 1865, is the day Union General Gordon Granger
arrived in Galveston with the first federal troops after the Confederate
Department of the Trans-Mississippi had been surrendered nearly three
weeks earlier. On that day, then, Granger proclaimed the Civil War
ended in Texas and all wartime proclamations in effect. This included
the freeing of slaves of all persons who had remained in rebellion
against the United States after January 1, 1863, which included every
slave owner in Texas.
This made the slaves technically "free" of such owners but it did
not end slavery as an institution. The instrument that did that was
the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified later that
same year. And it did not make the freedmen citizens; that waited
upon the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, which came about
in 1868.
Still, Juneteenth is as good a day as any, and perhaps better than
most, to celebrate freedom. It is also a good day to remember how
it came about.
Juneteenth celebrations had peaked by the time Jim Crow came to dominate
race relations by 1900, but continued until nearly eclipsed by the
civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s when African Americans
did not want to be reminded of slavery. Juneteenth has made a comeback
in more recent decades and has spread well beyond Texas’s borders
as black Texans relocate or others just hear about a good celebration
of freedom and want to join in. Why else would they be interviewing
someone in Toronto about Juneteenth?
© Archie P. McDonald
All
Things Historical
June 6, 2005 column
A syndicated column in over 40 East Texas newspapers
(This column is provided as a public service by the East Texas Historical
Association. Archie P. McDonald is director of the Association and
author of more than 20 books on Texas.)
More
on Texas Black History |
|
|
