Friday, June 19, 1998

Juneteenth -- an observance for all races

If you're new to Texas, or if history wasn't your best subject, you might not understand what Juneteenth is all about. It's an important date for African-Americans in Texas, but many Anglos probably don't know why.

Juneteenth celebrates the anniversary of the announcement of freedom to black slaves in Texas, which occurred on June 19, 1865.

But wait, you say. Hadn't Lincoln already freed the slaves back while the Civil War was still in progress?

That's true, in a technical sense. On Jan. 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln read the Emancipation Proclamation that declared slaves free. But in the midst of America's bloody Civil War, there were no television news broadcasts going into homes all over the country, no instant messages on the Internet. With much of the nation turned into a battlefield, even daily newspapers didn't all deliver the banner headlines of Lincoln's proclamation and a reprint of the full text to everyone's door -- particularly in the South where black slaves were still held in bondage and servitude.

In fact, much of the South didn't even hear the news of emancipation until after the Civil War ended more than two years later in April 1865. That year, in Texas, slave buyers' advertisements were still appearing, and in the month of Lee's surrender, a black man was sold at auction on Congress Street in Austin.

The announcement of the day of jubilee finally reached Texas when Gen. Gordon Granger issued a statement in Galveston on June 19, 1865, that all slaves were free and accorded equal rights with everyone else.

"The people of Texas," Granger's statement read, "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 quietly 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."

And so it came about that this date, not the earlier date of Lincoln's pronouncement, was the one that rang with significance in Texas.

Granger's proclamation, however, did not guarantee the instant achievement of genuine freedom and equality, which has been a considerably longer time in arriving. But June 19 marked a huge step forward. And for the African-Americans of Texas, it became known by a name that signified its special importance. It became known as Juneteenth.

The city of Abilene is sponsoring a Juneteenth Celebration today, including a barbecue lunch, at Nelson Park Festival Gardens from 9:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Especially in light of the recent tragic events in Jasper, we need to remember this celebration is not for African-Americans alone but for all races -- a mutual celebration of the human rights affirmed in the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal." If one of us is not free, then none of us are free. On that fact we should find our common ground.