On June 17, 2021, President Biden signed into law Congressional legislation establishing June 19, “Juneteenth”, as an annual national holiday. It commemorates Union General Gordon Granger’s 6/19/1865 issuance of General Order #3, declaring that “All slaves (in Texas) are free”. Fourteen House Republicans voted against Juneteenth, mirroring earlier, similar opposition.
President Reagan’s 1983 proposal that the country celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday every January, was not supported by some Senate Republicans. Nonetheless, the date was successfully added to America’s list of official holidays. Some states refused to recognize it until 2000. However, Mississippi and Louisiana were alone, in merging MLK and Robert E. Lee Day.
Juneteenth has been celebrated for many, many years largely by African American communities in different states, following their own local traditions. 2021 marks the first time the commemoration has gone national. Unfortunately, the 21st Century’s strange domestic political fragmentation leaves the reaction of the 23 states totally controlled by the Republicans, unknown.
The fact there is any doubt, 158 years after the Emancipation Proclamation and 156 after the ratification of the 13th Amendment, underscores the reality that racial equality in America is a work in progress. This point was painfully reinforced on May 31st, 2021 when the US celebrated Memorial Day, while also noting the centenary of the Tulsa Massacre of some 300 Blacks by whites.
The United States has lived through eighteen months of tragedy and trauma caused by a deadly pandemic (over 600,000 died), continuing murders of African Americans by white police, peaking on May 25, 2020, when a white officer knelt on the neck of a Black man, George Floyd, suffocating him. A bystander’s video went globally viral.
Outraged Black and white Americans demonstrated peacefully in cities across the country, attracting the attention of white supremacists and similarly disposed armed militias. The result was more death, injury, and destruction. The Trump Administration deployed anonymous federal law enforcement agents, aggravating the violence.
And then on January 6, 2021, thousands of Trump supporters rose in insurrection to block Congresses’ ceremonial confirmation that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were the new President and Vice President of the United States.. With confederate flags flying, thousands of Trump supporters invaded the US Capitol. Five people died and over 150 police officers were hospitalized. Despite the assault, the winners of the 2020 election were announced.
All Americans should loudly celebrate and enjoy their newest national holiday. However, in the weeks and months to come, no one should believe that June 19th represents the date when slavery’s legacy has disappeared from the United States. It has not.
Tom Timberman is an Army vet, lawyer, former senior Foreign Service officer, adjunct professor at GWU, and economic development team leader or foreign government advisor in war zones. He is the author of four books, lectures locally, and at US and European universities. He and his wife are 24 year residents of Kent County.
Stephen Schaare says
Mr. Timberman, Peaceful demonstrations across the country? The burning and destruction of Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland? What? Refusal of Mayors and Governors to quell the violence? Yes, five people died on Jan. 6. Two drug overdoses, two heart attacks, and one unarmed veteran shot by the still unnamed police officer. To your credit, you did not repeat the “whopper” of Joe Biden when he claimed a police officer was killed. Thank you for that.
Several days ago, Mayor Lightfoot of Chicago stated that racism is a national health hazard. She never mentioned the ongoing butchery of black citizens by other blacks. Just was not interested. Ignoring this genocide is the real racism. Guess people of color, their lives, just don’t matter. Address this bloodletting with the same vigor and passion as when a person of color is killed by a white officer. When we all start “telling the truth”, change will occur. Got to acknowledge the problem before a remedy can appear.