Juneteenth ~ remembering the end of slavery~ echo from Abilene Texas

Remembering Juneteenth points all Americans toward the future ~ an echo opinion column published in the Reporter News, in Abilene Texas.

Juneteenth, also known as "Juneteenth Independence Day" or Freedom Day, is an American holiday that commemorates the June 19, 1865, announcement of the abolition of slavery in the U.S. state of Texas

By Anthony Williams, Abilene Texas 

https://www.reporternews.com/story/opinion/contributors/2018/06/19/remembering-juneteenth-points-all-americans-toward-future/712191002/
Abilene Texas ~ A friend of mine told me about something he’d read recently about an African-American woman and her stepdaughter.

It seems that the mom, a trained historian, wanted her stepdaughter to sit down with her and watch "The Long Walk Home," a powerful movie starring Whoopi Goldberg and Sissy Spacek. It tells of the relationship between a white woman and her black housemaid during the 1955-56 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama.

To the mom’s surprise, her stepdaughter had no desire to watch the movie. When questioned, she said she hated “those type movies.” When asked why, the young girl responded that her generation was more interested in looking forward, rather than looking back, and that the days of the civil rights struggles were “so over.”

You know, part of me agrees with that young woman. Things are better now, on this 19th of June 2018, than they were for our forebears of the 1860s, 1890s and even those of the in -1900s. Because of the sacrifice and courage of people such as Dr. Martin Luther King and people of good will from all races, Americans of all ethnicities now enjoy greater legal protections and greater access to opportunity than ever before.

In a sense, the bad old days are, indeed, “so over.”

But in another sense, I’m saddened by this young girl’s words and attitude.

To lose touch with the past, to stop listening to the old stories and remembering the struggles of those who have gone before us is, it seems to me, to lose a big piece of who we are, as a race and as Americans. And so today, I want to touch base with the past, to remind myself and all of you what Juneteenth was, what it meant, and what it can still mean today, as we celebrate the blessings of freedom and opportunity.

I’m told that one of the first things early African-American leaders did in Texas was to purchase land. The simple truth was, they needed public space that was their own to hold the significant celebrations of this annual event that their communities needed and wanted. Though the Reconstruction promise of “40 acres and a mule” never came true, these recently freed peoples knew that if they had their own land, as individuals and as a group, that this would be an important first step toward claiming their place in American society.

In Houston, for example, in 1872, the Rev. Jack Yates, pastor of Antioch Baptist Church, and the Rev. Elias Dibble of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church raised $1,000 from community leaders to buy 10 acres at the corner of Dowling and Elgin streets, a tract they named Emancipation Park.

For years, the African-American community in that neighborhood paid the taxes on the land and maintained it specifically for use as a gathering place for Juneteenth celebrations until 1916, when the city of Houston absorbed the land into its parks system. Similarly, in Mexia, a group of black people calling themselves the Nineteenth of June Organization bought 10 acres next to the Navasota River and named it Booker T. Washington Park.

Now, these may seem like isolated historical facts, but they point to the main thing I want to talk about: these folks knew Juneteenth was important, because it was “our” day: the day the law of the rest of the land finally came to Texas, the day our great-great-great-grandparents finally knew they were free.

These people in Houston and Mexia didn’t want to have to beg for a place to celebrate their day; they wanted to own it. And that’s what they did. Why? Because this was their day, and I want to tell you today that this is the same reason I’m proud to celebrate Juneteenth—because it’s my day; it’s part of my story, and the story I plan to pass on to my children.

My grandfather was a farmer in the Anson community. He made a modest income, picking cotton and raising hogs. He wasn’t ever a wealthy man, so he had to be careful with his money. But there was one day of the year he would splurge. Want to guess what day that was? Juneteenth.

Oh, he liked the Fourth of July. He didn’t mind Labor Day, or Memorial Day, or any other of the wonderful holidays we’re blessed with in the United States. 

Yet, Juneteenth was special, for people of my grandparents’ generation, because they felt as if they didn’t have to share it with any other group—it was theirs. And they made the most of it. Some of them would save up all year long, just so they could make Juneteenth memorable.

That made a powerful impression on me as a boy.

And I stand before you not just for the good food, good fellowship, the music, the art, the speeches by good-looking public officials — though those are all good things. I say we should hang onto the memory, and keep telling the story.

It’s a part of who we are, and forms the basis for what we will become.