Juneteenth:1865-2021

[BumRushDaShow]

A very good documentary done by KHOU TV in Houston last year - https://www.khou.com/article/entertainment/events/juneteenth/juneteenth-1865-2021-wednesday-at-8-pm-on-khou-11/285-f6bab62b-3ed3-41eb-9475-9d75c75480a7

And as a note, just this morning I saw an article done by CNN that was picked up by one of the local papers here (Philly Tribune) that after all these years, povided a lightbulb moment from one sentence) -

What to know about Juneteenth now that it's a federal holiday

By Harmeet Kaur, CNN

Updated 6:56 AM ET, Sat June 18, 2022
(snip)

It celebrates the end of slavery

Juneteenth -- also known as Juneteenth Independence Day, Freedom Day and Emancipation Day -- commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.

A blend of the words June and nineteenth, it marks June 19, 1865: the day that Union Army Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, and issued General Order No. 3, proclaiming that the enslaved African Americans there were free.

"The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free," the order read. "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."

Freedom for the enslaved people of Galveston, Texas, came two-and-a-half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which couldn't be enforced in areas under Confederate control. It also came about two months after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union Army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia -- an event generally considered to be the end of the Civil War.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/18/us/juneteenth-federal-holiday-what-to-know-cec/index.html

(emphasis mine)

That one last sentence with the part - "came about two months after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union Army", meaning it took 2 years to find, scrape out, and dispose of the scum leaders of the Confederacy before the the U.S. could force compliance of all states to the Emancipation Proclamation, and Galveston in (where else) Texas, became the very last to relent and accept the order (which I knew, but not why and the circumstances, outside of a transportation issue to get the word out).

My complaint about the teaching of history in my schools was the obsession over "wars" and "battles", to the point where the "Battle of X" and the "Battle of Y" would end up resulting in the confusion of "battles" from 2 different wars - the "Revolutionary War" and "Civil War", creating a nonsensical mish-mash in a youngster's mind, rendering the historical context meaningless. And this was the case when you live in a state like mine (PA) that had significant historical "battles" cited for both of those wars.

But in any case, Monday will be the 1st anniversary of "Juneteenth" as a federal holiday.

[Cracklin Charlie]

1. I am so happy Juneteenth is now a federal holiday.

Something truly worth celebrating.

And the celebrations are everywhere this year! I love to see it.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. After what it took to get the MLK holiday

this was shockingly quick. And I believe it was done via "unanimous consent" in both chambers of Congress last year, and no douchebag GOP loon piped up to "object" and force it into a more drawn out process to pass into law.

[mucifer]

2. Thanks for Posting! In the 1 year since they made this now the

Holiday of Juneteenth is Federal. But, Texas is shutting down education of injustice in their school system.

I appreciated learning more of Texas history from this documentary.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. You are welcome!

I know there are a bunch of documentaries out there but figured since this one was done by a TX broadcast station in the city just 50 miles north of Galveston (and I've been to both places), they could add that "extra" historic ambience to it.

[Journeyman]

5. The last Confederate Brigade didn't surrender until 4 days after June 19 . . .

June 23, 1865: Brigadier General Stan Watie (CSA), signed a cease-fire agreement with Union forces. Watie, a Cherokee, was the last Confederate General, and his troops -- the First Indian Brigade of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi -- the final force in the field for the now-defunct CSA to lay down their arms. The American Civil War was over.

There's a certain irony to the denouement, that a brigade comprised of native Americans should be the last active force fighting for the Confederate cause, but then, the War was filled with little ironies and big contradictions. And native Americans played a role in it throughout. Watie was the highest ranking native American for the South, while Ely Parker, a Seneca, held the same high rank in the Union army. Parker, however, as an attorney and civil engineer, had the distinction to serve on Gen. U.S. Grant's staff, and was picked by Grant to write the terms of surrender presented to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. That document is in Parker's handwriting.

Few Cherokee held slaves before the War. In this, they were similar to their white Confederate allies. They opposed the Union largely out of fear the Federal Government intended to carve a State out of the land they'd been forced onto by that same Government. Those fears proved valid after the War, when Oklahoma was established.

Watie's forces were both efficient and ruthless during the War. It is said they fought in more battles West of the Mississippi than any other Confederate unit. They also committed some of the war's most vicious atrocities, including the slaughter of Union troops and black civilian teamsters during a raid on a supply convoy in September, 1864.

There were many reasons why word of Emancipation took so long to reach every corner of the nation. Part of it was that the war continued well beyond Lee's surrender. (The final battle, Palmito Ranch, was fought near Brownsville, Texas, in mid-May. Ironically, it was a Confederate victory.) And as you rightfully point out, news of Emancipation took so long to spread due to poor communications -- both technologically and willfully, for not all who heard the word were quick to spread it, especially to their slaves.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. Thanks for those details

considering the fact that it took 2 years to finally wind that war down (yet "1865" gets used as a benchmark date), was a disgrace.

And you mention Brownsville and all I could imagine was that any type of strenuous activity like engaging in hostilities as part of a war past "mid-May", then you could kiss your ass goodbye from the south Texas heat (which starts in April)!