THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF JUNETEENTH

THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF JUNETEENTH

On June 19, 1865, U.S. Major General Gordon Granger, newly arrived with 1,800 men in Texas, ordered that “all slaves are free” in Texas and that there would be an “absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves.” The idea that any such proclamation would still need to be issued in June 1865 – two months after the surrender at Appomattox - forces us to rethink how and when slavery and the Civil War really ended. And in turn it helps us recognize Juneteenth as not just a bookend to the Civil War but as a celebration and commemoration of the epic struggles of emancipation and Reconstruction… Now, as we approach the 150th anniversary of the events that ended slavery and constructed meaningful rights for all Americans, we should look to Juneteenth as a model for commemorating Reconstruction. By grappling publicly—in parks and in programs—with the accomplishments of ending slavery and constructing equal rights, as well as the overthrow of Reconstruction and equal rights in Jim Crow, we can begin to wrestle with the impact that events like Juneteenth had upon the nation we live in.   More

 

Friday, June 19: "From Emancipation to Selma to Ferguson," 4:00pm - 8:00pm, Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, Inc. 300 Walnut Ave, Roxbury.  Join the Boston Juneteenth Committee at the 5th Annual Boston Juneteenth Emancipation Observation. Keynote Address by Patrick Sylvain (Educator, Writer, & Social Critic); Poetry Reading by Danielle Georges (City of Boston Poet Laureate);  Music and Entertainment / Face Painting / Food and Community Vendors / Community Quilt with sparc! the Artmobile / Encampment of the 54th Regiment / Books Checkout at the Bibliocycle (bring your library cards)

 

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WARS ABROAD, WARS AT HOME

 

Racist Massacre in Charlestown

The murders of African-American worshippers took place in an historic church with roots in the struggle against slavery and in the still-unfinished mission to achieve equality in our country. These Are The Victims Of The Charleston Church Shooting.

 

The massacre also illustrates the connectedness of racist violence at home with the wars and US support for oppressions abroad.  The killer proudly displayed the symbols of Apartheid South Africa and colonial Rhodesia.  During the 1980’s, it was a core mission of the US reactionaries and racists to support those regimes – along with backing rightwing terrorists in Central America and Southern Africa. (The US Congress eventually passed sanctions against South Africa over the veto of Pres. Ronald Reagan.) 

 

Not incidentally, Israel – which South Africans today call an Apartheid State – was the principle arms supplier to the white government in Pretoria. Just last week, a historic Catholic church on the Sea of Galilee was torched by Jewish religious extremists – and years before a US-born Israeli Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 worshippers at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron.  Goldstein is venerated as a martyr by West Bank settlers.  Meanwhile, Israel has for many years been the largest recipient of US foreign aid and is faithfully shielded by our government from international censure.

 

Racism is embedded in US history and was institutionalized in our very founding Constitution.  It also undergirds US foreign and military policy today. Conversely, the struggle for equality at home has always made links with the drive for justice abroad – going back to the missions of abolitionist Frederick Douglass to Ireland and Haiti and continuing with the solidarity from Ferguson to Palestine (and including Hip-hop music).

 

Murders in Charleston

The daisy chain of racial outrages that have been a constant feature of American life since Trayvon Martin’s death, three years ago, are not a copycat phenomenon soon to fade from our attention.  At the same time, what happened at Emanuel A.M.E. belongs in another terrible lineage—the modern mass shooting. We have, quite likely, found at 110 Calhoun Street, in Charleston, South Carolina, the place where Columbine, Aurora, and Newtown cross with Baltimore, Ferguson, and Sanford. We periodically mourn the deaths of a group of Americans who die at the hands of another armed American. We periodically witness racial injustices that inspire anger in the streets. And sometimes we witness both. This is, quite simply, how we now live.  More