By Hannah Rose Williams
Juneteenth, a holiday celebrated on June 19th, commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.
In our day to day lives, where police violence and brutality consume and overwhelm the media, it’s hard not to grow weary of what our nation hasn’t come to. A nation that isn’t pre-designed to neglect and put citizens at a disadvantage based upon the darkness of their skin.
On this day: How do we allow ourselves to be celebratory, when all we see are the ways oppression has decorated and plagued our society?
Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.
In the year of 1865, it was on June 19th that Union soldiers, led by Major Gen. Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas, with reports that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.
This was almost three years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which was declared in 1863 .
In fact, the Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new Executive Order.
However, with the surrender of General Lee in April of 1865, and the arrival of General Granger’s regiment, the forces finally were strong enough to influence and conquer the resistance .
Robert Edward Lee was an American and Confederate. The soldier is best known as a commander of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He commanded the Army of Northern Virginia from 1862 until its surrender in 1865.
He was also the last person to prevent black citizens from being freed from enslavement, 19 percent of the population, at that time.
And 155 years later, with black people making up more than 12 percent of the population, Lee’s confederate influence remains.
The New York Times reports that “students at the University of Texas at Austin have stood up at sports games, raised their right hand to form the symbol of the storied Texas Longhorns and belted out The Eyes of Texas, a campus anthem.”
A song that is set to the racist-rooted tune of I’ve Been Working on the Railroad. A song that traces back to Robert E. Lee.
How is that we are still working to remove traditions entrenched in racism?
How is that we allow racist values and systemic injustice to seep through our daily lives?
As we take this one day of the year to commemorate an important milestone in history, I am reminded of the work that still needs to be done.
It’s easy to overlook and negate the severity of the racism that lies in our country. As we live, breathe, eat, and talk we can sometimes allow ourselves to only speak up when we witness extremism or belligerence. However, that isn’t the fight we need to be fighting.
We need to fight the things that are not so easy to address, the institutionalized and systemic racism that ferociously dominates the governing of our country.
According to the NAACP, African Americans are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of whites.
George Floyd , “a 46-year-old black man, after a convenience store employee called 911 and told the police that Mr. Floyd had bought cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. Seventeen minutes after the first squad car arrived at the scene, Mr. Floyd was unconscious and pinned beneath three police officers, showing no signs of life.” —The New York Times.
Breonna Taylor, “shot to death by police in her own home. In what’s been described as a ‘botched raid,’ officers barged into her apartment in Louisville, Kentucky, as she lay sleeping and fired multiple rounds.” –-The Cut
And the list continues.
Why is that, 155 years later, black lives are still being taken and locked away? Where is the freedom?
Today, I wonder what it will take to remove the target from black skin.
Today, I am hopeful for change. As I struggle to read the news and watch the tapes of the literal murdering of my black brothers and sisters I am hopeful for a better tomorrow.
Today, I commemorate and celebrate my ancestors who’ve gotten us where we are today.
In the wise words of Martin Luther King Jr., “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality…. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”
Hannah Rose Williams is a junior at the Morristown-Beard School.
The opinions expressed here are the author’s, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.
