Juneteenth Now!

What are you going to do for liberation?

Happy Juneteenth, Black People!  I’m dreaming of true liberation for us all!!

Here is the history of Juneteenth, from several sources, for all who want to know more.

The Origins of Juneteenth

Juneteenth honors the date, June 19, 1865, when the last Confederate community of enslaved Americans in Galveston, Texas, received word that they had been freed from bondage. Union General Gordon Granger led the unit in Galveston who would ensure the proclamation was enforced. 

The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861. Initially, the Civil War between North and South was fought by the North to prevent the secession of the Southern states. Even though sectional conflicts over slavery had been a major cause of the war, ending slavery was not a goal of the war. Preserving the Union was.

That changed on September 22, 1862, when President Lincoln issued his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which stated that enslaved people in those states or parts of states still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863, would be declared free. As promised, with the rebellion unabated, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious areas "are, and henceforward shall be free."

Because it was a military measure, however, the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Union control. Most important, the freedom it promised depended upon Union military victory.

On the eve of January 1, 1863, which is the date the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, African Americans held gatherings in churches and homes waiting to hear that the law had taken effect. After the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, Union soldiers traveled throughout the South reading copies of it to the public as they spread the news. Many of these soldiers were Black.

Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation, it did fundamentally transform the character of the war. After January 1, 1863, every advance of federal troops expanded the domain of freedom. Moreover, the Proclamation announced the acceptance of Black men into the Union Army and Navy, enabling the liberated to become liberators. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 Black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and freedom.

The Civil War officially ended on April 9, 1865, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox, Virginia. While the Emancipation Proclamation had freed enslaved people more than two years prior, it wasn't until the end of the Civil War that Union troops had the strength to enforce General Order No. 3 in the once Confederate states. 

Texas was the last standing state of the Confederacy, which is why enslaved Africans in Galveston weren’t liberated until two years after the Proclamation was signed. It wasn’t until two months after the end of the war that Union General Gordon Granger came to Galveston, Texas with about 2,000 Union troops to inform the community that the war was over and Africans could no longer be legally enslaved. He arrived on June 19, 1865, and it’s on this day each year that Juneteenth is celebrated.

Because it was the last place to learn the news, Galveston, Texas is considered the true birthplace of Juneteenth. Juneteenth has always held sacred space for those who had endured the horrors of slavery and racism. Many formerly enslaved Africans and their descendants continued to celebrate Juneteenth in Texas—sometimes making pilgrimages to Galveston in honor of the day. Juneteenth has been an official holiday in Texas since 1980. 

A Juneteenth celebration in 1900!

When we reflect on all this history, remember The Emancipation Proclamation only applied to enslaved Africans in Confederate states. Even though Juneteenth marks the day that the last remaining enslaved in the final Confederate holdout were freed, slavery was not actually abolished as a matter of national policy until the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865.

When President Biden proclaimed Juneteenth an official federal holiday in 2021, he wrote, "In its celebration of freedom, Juneteenth is a day that should be recognized by all Americans...a day in which we remember the moral stain and terrible toll of slavery on our country—what I’ve long called America’s original sin. A long legacy of systemic racism, inequality, and inhumanity. But it is a day that also reminds us of our incredible capacity to heal, hope, and emerge from our darkest moments with purpose and resolve." 

How to Celebrate Juneteenth:

There are three ways Middle Church is celebrating Juneteenth today. Before this evening, I’m immersing myself in Black art. I just watched We Grown Now, a tender and beautiful film depicting the love and commitment in two Black families in the late 1990s, and the fierce friendship between two Black boys. I’m taking James Baldwin and Toni Morrison with me to sit in the sun for a little while. I like it hot. And I woke up looking at photos of Mom and Dad and thinking of the seeds of love and liberation they sowed in me and my siblings. I preached about those seeds last Sunday.

All day, I’ll be praying thanksgiving for my parents and asking the God of Love to watch over Black people all over the nation, so that the so-called Reformation Amendments that followed our emancipation—Amendments meant to further expand the freedoms and rights of my people—will bear fruit for our progeny. The 13th Amendment ended slavery in all states; the 14th Amendment provided citizenship, due process and equal protection; and the 15th Amendment provided the opportunity to vote and hold office. BUT the American economy and the prison industrial complex are just two systems that keep their knees on our necks.

I want knees off our necks, how about you? If we are to fully emerge from the white supremacist ideologies that led to chattel slavery in this nation and that still oppress Black people, we have work to do!! For all the people who have this day off—and the white people especially—what are you going to do for Black liberation? Do you understand that our liberation and your liberation are inextricably connected? That you are not free, I am not free, until we all are free? How will you be intentional about what you read, watch, and listen to? What is your learning/acting agenda so that the vestiges of the history of enslavement here in this nation are addressed systemically, and in your individual life?

Can you imagine using these next two weeks—Juneteenth to July 4—to make a personal plan to be a love warrior, a freedom fighter, a drum major for racial justice and equality? Stay tuned to this Substack for resources—a curriculum to follow if you will. I got you; I’ll give you some things to think about, and some things to do.

I’m off to celebrate, to dream about freedom, liberty and justice, for all.

Love to you all, and a special “fist bump” and love to my beautiful Black family, everywhere!