Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. June 19th is the day in 1865 when Union soldiers landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.
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 rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer.”
What became known as general order number 3 was delivered two and a half years after president Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation; this late arrival of the order to end slavery caused cynics in the newly emancipated community to create the term “Juneteenth.”: which meant something extremely late or likely never to arrive.
General Order number 3 is the only known emancipation notice ever given to Negroes. Imagine the transition from slave to African American without recompense or consideration of citizenship, without a thank you for 250 years of free labor and no share of the massive economy built on your back.
This place a nugget of gold in a sea of clay
Today we stand on precious ground
A stoned arch bridging many an uncertain day
A monument for shoulder-to-the-grindstone will
We come to bear witness and to bare our hearts
Here where the past is buried in the marrow of bones
We are the wind chimed clank and clang of dry bones
A chalice of wisdom from fired clay
Reverent music poured into open hearts
Many colors carpet this hallowed ground
This is a cornerstone of will
The founders’ foresight promised us this day
Raise the pennants and praise the day
The drummer lives in incus bones
Trees planted by the waters of will
A joyful insistence encrypted in this clay
Let hurrahs and hallelujahs shake the ground
And stir the longing in our hearts
Ella scatting an anthem for our hearts
Spirit movers, seekers of a breaking day
The visionary’s broom sweeping this ground
This monument to long buried bones
Tread carefully over this layered clay
Built by communal warriors of one will
On the road to glory by grace and will
The boon of freedom glowing in our hearts
Moisten the yard and tamp down the clay
Fry the fish and fixings to celebrate the day
And set the legends sifting through our bones
Our dancing DNA moonwalking on sacred ground
Today a tower of tolerance stands on hard won ground
Today we acknowledge the power of a righteous will
Today we refresh dreams and replenish the legacy of bones
Today our heroes rest in the shelter of our hearts
Today a day like no other day
Today we patina the world in a crust of clay
Praise to this persistent will, that seized this day
Protect this swirling ground and blood mottled clay
Place the merit bones of our past safe in the trove of our hearts
MARY WOOD says
Congratulations for a well made difficult poem,with an important message.
Lani Seikaly says
Chestertown is so fortunate to have a poet of Robert Earl Price’s brilliance. His poetry is insightful, painful and powerful.
Melinda Bookwalter says
Simple words,
strong and proud,
filled with imagery.
Powerful.
A new favorite, thank you Robert Earl.
James Moseman says
I am proud as an American to learn more and more of the roll of African-Americans in the liberation of their country. May God Bless America with more such patriotic and selfless individuals.
Barbara in den Bosch says
Thanks, Robert!
Barbara