Article from For Liberty by Norm Leahy.
June 19 –Juneteenth – is a day all Americans should celebrate.
It was on this day in 1865 that slavery was finally ended in the United States. And it occurred when Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3 soon after his arrival in Galveston, Texas.
The Order read:
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. The Freedmen are advised to remain at their present homes, and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts; and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.
Juneteenth has been celebrated in Texas ever since and has become an official holiday in most states.
But it’s important to remember that this event was both a beginning and an end. Slavery was over. But the long, and often terrible struggle for civil rights was just getting started.
We all should celebrate the end of chattel slavery and the unspeakable violence it did to human freedom. But we should also remember that the fight for genuine and lasting equality before the law for all people remains unfinished.
Image Credit: Michael Dorausch [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]
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Oh yes!!! Let’s talk about black slavery, but, never mention the most horrendous slavery put upon the Native American Indians. They are the only culture today that is still slaves. They are living on reservations, forced, upon them & most still have no inside bathrooms & no running water, heat or air. You rarely, if ever, find a Native American Indian in any kind of trouble or involved in any type of crime, yet the most criminal culture on earth, blacks, are being catered to with millions of dollars, given right to enter any Ivy League college with lowest grades, make millions in the sports field & celebrity field. This is the REAL CRIME in America, supporting criminal people who will never stop being criminals no matter what you give them.
Why is no one doing anything for the Native American Indian who has nothing, still living in poverty & NO FUTURE. This is where all groups of people should be ashamed for pushing the NAI into poverty & never being heard. You don’t see these wonderful people with CHARACTER, destroying everything around them, murdering, robbing, kidnapping & an endless list crimes on their record. This is REAL oppression & inequality.
I did celebrate today as it’s my birthday. Of course, given those who have chosen to attack the things and symbols which I value, I gave myself the gift of returning the courtesy by flying the Stars and Bars…
Happy Birthday Riva ! I’m with you on these Thugs taking down and destroying Great Symbols of History !!
In case anyone forgot we celebrate our freedoms on July 4 of every year not on June 19th and no this day should not become a holiday
Just another celebration of ignorance, they are celebrating ANOTHER gift that white people gave them and acting as though they did it for themselves
June 1867 is celebrated by black people in Texas, slaves were freed in 1865, but Texas slaves were told 2 years later. This date June 19 is distinctive to Texans and I like it to stay that way, unless you were from Texas or the south no one else knew about it or they would not acknowledge it. GO AWAY!!!