Why Juneteenth's Not My Thing
Plus, July 2 was also the actual day that the American colonies declared independence from Great Britain (July 4 was a day of inconsequential business), such that the signing of the Civil Rights Act on that same day in 1964 could be seen as especially apt and commemorative, righting an evil that had besmirched the great experiment for two centuries.
I can even imagine July 2 becoming a kind of alternate Independence Day celebration for black Americans, occurring around the same time as everyone else's July 4, but with a special in-group meaning.
Juneteenth, on the other hand, has always struck me as celebrating the lives of characters in books like Beloved and Sounder.
Rather than lifting a glass to what America offered to my great-great-grandfather and his son—and all that was still denied them after that offering, I am more inclined to lift one to the America in which my father could become the student affairs coordinator of a mainstream university, which would have been unthinkable 10 years before it happened.
I am always more interested in what we did rather than what somebody did to us.
John McWhorter, a culture and politics Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, is a columnist for the New York Sun and author of "Losing the Race."
Also on The Root:
Afi-Odelia E. Scruggs teaches Juneteenth 101. Erin Evans sings "free at last."
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Why Juneteenth's Not My Thing
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View All Comments »Juneteenth at 09/14/2008 11:38:01 AM
Comment:
Juneteenth is America???s 2nd Independence Day celebration. 29 states and the District of Columbia recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday or state holiday observance, as well as the Congress of the United States.
We honor our ancestors, Americans of African descent, by joining them in celebrating the announcement of freedom from enslavement through the reading of General Order #3 by Union General Gordon Granger, concerning the Emancipation Proclamation, over two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued it, on the "19th of June", 1865, in Galveston, TX.
The Emancipation Proclamation did not free all of our ancestors bounded by the tyranny of enslavement across the country. Slavery did not official end for the entire nation until the 13th Amendment was passed by congress in December of 1865.
However, those of us who celebrate Juneteenth have decided that honoring our ancestors, who celebrated following the reading of General Order #3, is the date that we will celebrate freedom from enslavement in America.
Together we will see Juneteenth become a national holiday in America!
???DOC???
Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D.
Chairman
National Juneteenth Holiday Campaign
National Juneteenth Observance Foundation (NJOF)
National Juneteenth Christian Leadership Council (NJCLC)
http://www.Juneteenth.us
http://www.19thofJune.com
http://www.njclc.com
http://www.JuneteenthJazz.com
Juneteenth at 09/14/2008 10:58:19 AM
Comment:
Juneteenth is America???s 2nd Independence Day celebration. 29 states and the District of Columbia recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday or state holiday observance, as well as the Congress of the United States.
We honor our ancestors, Americans of African descent, by joining them in celebrating the announcement of freedom from enslavement through the reading of General Order #3 by Union General Gordon Granger, concerning the Emancipation Proclamation, over two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued it, on the "19th of June", 1865, in Galveston, TX.
The Emancipation Proclamation did not free all of our ancestors bounded by the tyranny of enslavement across the country. Slavery did not official end for the entire nation until the 13th Amendment was passed by congress in December of 1865.
However, those of us who celebrate Juneteenth have decided that honoring our ancestors, who celebrated following the reading of General Order #3, is the date that we will celebrate freedom from enslavement in America.
Together we will see Juneteenth become a national holiday in America!
???DOC???
Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D.
Chairman
National Juneteenth Holiday Campaign
National Juneteenth Observance Foundation (NJOF)
National Juneteenth Christian Leadership Council (NJCLC)
http://www.Juneteenth.us
http://www.19thofJune.com
http://www.njclc.com
http://www.JuneteenthJazz.com
famousauthor at 08/01/2008 6:18:52 PM
Comment:
July 2 was celebrated in St. Augustine, Florida with the launching of a Freedom Trail of historic sites of the civil rights movement. Ten markers were placed in 2007 and ten more in 2008. It was the demonstrations on the streets of St. Augustine, famed as the nation's oldest city, led by Dr. Robert B. Hayling and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that filled the pages of the nation's newspaper in the weeks leading up to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. For many decades thereafter, millions of people visited St. Augustine each year without knowing anything about those events, which were carefully swept under the rug. Now, thanks to the Freedom Trail, they are out there for everyone to see. Hooray for July 2! Mark it on your calendar.