As everyone knows by now, Trump has scheduled his first rally
in months on Juneteenth in Tulsa, the site of a horrific massacre ninety-nine
years ago. The term “Juneteenth,”
previously familiar only in the Black community and among American historians
and literary critics, has been repeated endlessly on cable news, but no one, to
my knowledge, has taken a moment to explain its origin and meaning. It is most often described as a celebration
of the end of slavery, but that is not quite right.
Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in the midst of
the Civil War, in September, 1863, to take effect January 1, 1864. The Proclamation did not end slavery. It declared free the slaves in the states
that had joined the rebellion, but not those in states that had sided with the
Union. This was not a purely cosmetic
declaration. It had the effect of
freeing those slaves who had escaped from the Confederacy and made their way to
the Union lines, a change in status that was important at the time.
This was of course at a time when communication was a good
deal more primitive, and when almost all of the slaves had been denied the education
necessary to enable them to read. Texas
was far away from the center of the United States, and news of the Emancipation
Proclamation was not announced to slaves in Texas until June 19, 1865, two
months after the end of the Civil War.
The Proclamation had the effect of freeing the Texas slaves. The 13th Amendment, banning all slavery, was not finally ratified until six months later. June 19th became a Black
celebration, and was referred to as Juneteenth. The word was used as the title of a
posthumous novel extracted from 2000 pages by Ralph Ellison left at his death.
2 comments:
Most bad outcomes are some combination of stupid/ignorant/evil (e.g. wealthy people who supported Trump for the tax cuts,etc. even though they knew he was a fraud and bad actor are displaying evil and stupidity - plutocrats never seem to understand that kleptocrats don't see them as allies, they see them as prey. There is no cure for stupid and evil but ignorance can sometimes respond to education and we have had near four years worth.
All Trump has left is the stupid/evil components of his base, hence the massive Juneteenth/Tulsa dog whistle.
Some detail. Most notably, General Granger backed his order with 2000 troops that landed with him at Galveston-suggesting that lack of publicity was not the only obstacle to de facto emancipation. The slaveowners had to be made to release their slaves. https://www.galvestonhistory.org/news/juneteenth-and-general-order-no-3
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