FREEDOM(ISH) A JUNETEENTH PRIMER
EMANCIPATION THE LAST STRONG HOLD PROCLOMATION It is said that because Texas was the state Many people think that the Emancipation farthest removed from the Union that the Proclamation of 1863 freed people considered word of freedom was slow to arrive (not to be slaves, "within rebellious states" from almost 2.5 years slow!). At any rate, Texas the white supremacist institution of slavery. failed to free their enslaved in 1863. In fact, Texas would not go on to free their enslaved, by order of General Order No. 3, until June 19, 1865. Hence the holiday name Juneteenth! BUT.....
ISH.... A CELEBRATION Now, not all enslaved people were freed on Juneteenth. There were still those left in Juneteenth is considered to be the true Black Union territory. They were not freed until Independence Day. Formally enslaved citizens, December of 1967 by way of the Thirteenth in Galveston, TX (location of the Amendment. Over time (1868 & 1874), the announcement) celebrated after the Freedmen of Texas were given legal status by announcement, but it wouldn't be until the the Texas Supreme Court. Thus many early following year that freedmen of Texas would Junteenths were political rallies to support organize the first of the annual celebrations of voting rights to Freedmen. BUT it doesn't end what is known as Jubilee Day. In Austin 1867, there. Jim Crow laws were enacted and under the Freedmen's Bureau, Juneteenth enforced until 1965. was first celebrated.
IN OBSERVANCE How to Celebrate
Dig deeper to learn more about Junteenth If you are white, consider leveraging your and teach other people about it. privilege and donate to projects and movements led by Black people. There are Learn the Black National Anthem- and several in Louisville: teach it to your kids (or nieces, nephews, nibblings, etc)! Black Lives Matter- Louisville Feed the West Volunteer in the community Louisville Community Bail Fund
Join Louisville Showing up for Racial If you are Black or a Person of Color Justice (SURJ) If you have been protesting on the front lines, TAKE A BREAK! If you know a person of color protesting on the frontlines, take their place. If you haven't been protesting on the frontlines, TAKE A BREAK! 2020 has been utterly exhausting and it's only June. Commit to being an anti-racist white person and embody the work so that you Take part in any of the virtual Junteenth show up as such where you live, work and celebrations or group healing sessions. play.
Lift ev'ry voice and sing' Til BLACK NATIONAL ANTHEM earth and heaven ring (LIFT EVERY VOICE) Ring with the harmonies of JAMES WELDON JOHNSON Liberty Stony the road we trod Let our rejoicing rise Bitter the chastening rod High as the list'ning skies Felt in the days when hope unborn had God of our weary years,God of our silent Let it resound loud as the died tears, rolling sea Yet with a steady beat Thou who has brought us thus far on the Sing a song full of the faith Have not our weary feet way; that the dark past has taught Come to the place for which our fathers Thou who has by Thy might Led us into the light, us sighed? We have come over a way that with tears Keep us forever in the path, we pray. Sing a song full of the hope has been watered Lest our feet stray from the places, our that the present has brought We have come, treading our path through God, where we met Thee, us the blood of the slaughtered Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the Facing the rising sun of our Out from the gloomy past' world, we forget Thee; new day begun Til now we stand at last Shadowed beneath Thy hand, Let us march on 'til victory is Where the white gleam of our bright star is May we forever stand.True to our God, won cast True to our native land.
Compiled by the HSC Office of Diversity & Inclusion
https://louisville.edu/hsc/diversity