Recognizing a more honest history

by | Jun 19, 2020 | Editor's Blog | 3 comments

Today is Juneteenth, the anniversary of the emancipation of slaves in Texas. The day has long been one of celebration in the African American community. Yesterday, the National Archives announced they have found the original order, delivered by a Major F.W. Emery on behalf of Major General Gordon Granger.  It reads, in part: 

“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, ‘all slaves are free.’ This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.”

For a people who had lived in bondage in this country for 250 years, the order must have been almost surreal. It led to wide celebrations across Texas at the time and became a tangible date for African Americans to remember as slavery ended in a piecemeal fashion across the South. Today, it’s widely seen as the symbolic date of their emancipation. 

Given the events of the past few weeks, it should be recognized as a national holiday. Ending slavery was truly a step toward achieving the ideals set forth in our founding document. The preamble of the Constitution reads,  “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Most African Americans were denied any semblance of these basic rights until they were freed following the Civil War. As a country, we should recognize that in freeing the slaves we moved forward in promoting principles equality, liberty, and justice. That it’s taken another 150 years to fully recognize the significance of the date shows how much further we had to go then and how much work we need to do now. 

We are currently in the midst of a great reckoning, coming to terms with the short-comings of our country. We have failed to provide basic rights to too many of our citizens for too long and we told a false narrative to both deny and obscure our sins. We now need to rewrite our history to tell a more complete and truthful story “in Order to form a more perfect Union.” As a country and society, we are still a work in progress and always will be. 

3 Comments

  1. Beverly Falls

    Juneteenth certainly burst into the consciousness of the wider American public this year, but NOT because this current president caused it as he wants to claim. His team scheduling the resumption of what I refer to as his “cult rallies” on both Juneteenth and so soon after the observance of the 99th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre was abhorrent. They moved the party Convention out of Charlotte, North Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida and revelation then arose that the date closely aligned with the sixty year anniversary of the “Ax Handle Saturday” race riot.

    What this actually points out is that our history has accumulated a widespread series of atrocities that could potentially impact any event or commemoration. It is time our real history is acknowledged and efforts made to rectify past wrongs.

    I realize there is enthusiasm to make Juneteenth a national holiday, but that should not be the goal.
    Why not the September date when a Union victory gave Lincoln the opening to release his prepared Emancipation Proclamation? Why not January First long observed as Emancipation Day? Why not January 31, the day the 13th Amendment was passed by Congress? Why not December 6, the day the 13th Amendment was ratified? For that matter, why not November 4, the day the first African-American President was elected, or January 20, the day he was inaugurated?
    So just as there are any number of anniversaries that memorialize tragedies in our collective history, there has been a step-by-step progression toward the high ideals expressed by the Founding Fathers that ALL persons are created equal.

    Instead, consider the following:
    Taking concrete action to address systemic racism and discrimination,
    come to terms with the legacies of Jim Crow segregationist laws and practices,
    ending the policies of mass incarceration and the for-profit prison system,
    discussing reparations,
    and working for a just society where Black Lives Matter and lethal force is no longer a tool of law enforcement
    would all be better tribute than naming another hollow holiday.

  2. Clifton Buckrham

    Mr. Mill, As a 70 year old African American male, I really enjoy and appreciate your columns on issues of race and justice. I sense a deep and authentic passion for racial equality on your part. Your perspective and tone make me believe that your convictions are truly visceral, not just cerebral. In fact, on issues of racial justice you remind me of one of my all-time political heroes, the late Senator Paul Wellstone.

    I am also a very left-of-center Democrat who believes that social, racial, and economic injustices will never be corrected/eradicated without radical structural/institutional/systemic changes in our government and governing order. Believing this, however, doesn’t mean that I am a revolutionary. I guess I’m more of a reformer who believes that changes have to be more than token or incremental. I still believe that such changes can be effected through democratic means and a democratic system rather than through violent revolution.

    This leads me to my central point. Sometimes I feel that the corrections you sincerely long for and eloquently advocate will not be brought to pass through some of the political candidates and programs you support. To me “centrism” and “moderation” tend to stand for little. In fact, the middle of the road is a place where one is most likely to get run over. Timidity in either religion or political ideology breeds “luke-warmness,” which is incapable of firing up people to action.

    Please continue the good work of advocacy you do. You provide an invaluable service.

    • Thomas Mills

      Thank you for your thoughtful words and encouragement. Also, thank you for reading.

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