Juneteenth More Joyous Than Martin Luther King’s Birthday
President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, the document which freed all slaves in the United States, took effect on Jan. 1, 1863. The hats, horns, pots and pans for celebrating liberation didn’t come out for two and a half years.
From published slave narratives we have an account of how the holiday began; it is said the Emancipation Proclamation was read to slaves in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, more than two years after it officially went into effect. As word of the end of slavery spread, Juneteenth was created to commemorate that day.
Folklore tells why the news of freedom took so long to arrive. There were no instantaneous electronic or digital communications in 1862. No Twitter, or Internet, email or blogs! There was no teevee or radio; there were some newspapers, or fliers, for the few people who were able to read.
One story tells that the slaves were intentionally kept ignorant about their freedom in order to allow crops to continue being harvested. (This seems to be the most likely reason for delay.)
However, if we accept the official version, imagine being the poor fellow, who as a messenger, was tasked with traveling by mule from the date of the Emancipation Proclamation, September 22, 1862, when it was composed and signed; or the January 1, 1863 effective date when it was announced, to deliver the news. It simply took more than two years to arrive from Washington, D.C., to Texas. *Fifteen hundred miles by mule! Was he carrying the mule or was the mule carrying him? We think the messenger was taking well deserved frequent breaks–3 steps forward and 2 back for another drink. Or he was being paid by the hour and he was trying to stretch it out.*
Today a ride on Amtrak, from D.C.’s Union Station to Galveston, Texas, is a trip about 53 hours long. The time by plane is a quick four hour flight. Cars allow us to conveniently travel nearly 1500 miles, the distance from Washington, D.C. to Galveston, in 24 hours, more or less.
Another story has the messenger being murdered before he could deliver the message. In this case the message never was delivered/ It likely arrived by rumor, or murmur depending on your perspective. (There were rumors and murmurs of the truth. The slaves were getting restless. It was finally acknowledged in, of all places, Texas, June 19, 1865. It was time to announce the truth. It was the most expedient thing to do rather than have black people revolt.)
Juneteenth has been a state holiday in Texas since 1980, and it is either an official holiday or an observed day in at least 17 other states — Alaska, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma and Wyoming.
“Juneteenth,” those who celebrate say, “is like Martin Luther King’s Birthday without the grieving.”
Happy JUNETEENTH!
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