And believe that they can overthrow injustice.SALEM - The Senate on Thursday quickly and without debate passed two of the most contentious bills of the session – on abortion and firearms – as the Republican-led walkout ended and work began. It comes from a very American story that through perseverance and sacrifice, oppression can be defeated.Įlaine Weintraub, co-founder of the African American Heritage Trail of Martha’s Vineyard, recently said in a video story produced by The Times, “There’s a hope that people will value their own freedom and the freedom of everyone else. So this weekend is a time to celebrate, yes, but it’s also a time to reflect on the need for change.īut Juneteenth does also act as a reminder that there is hope. While there is freedom, there is not equality. It is too often that we see Black men beaten and killed at the hands of police in this country Black men have a much higher rate of incarceration than their white counterparts, because of a history of discrimination and injustice schools across the country are censoring books that teach the history of slavery in certain parts of country that happen to have a large Black population, there are unfair impediments to voting because of redlining and other discriminatory practices, the Black population hasn’t been able to amass the same amount of wealth as white America the FBI says that white supremacist pose the greatest domestic terrorist threat in the country. So when we celebrate our freedom this weekend, let’s think of that fight and those efforts to defeat a truly horrific practice.īut also on Juneteenth, we should reflect on where we are, and where we want to go as a country. “Black people were not given freedom they forced freedom to become a national mandate.” Those enslaved people escaping the South would also enlist in the Army. “Freedom did not come from the White House or Congress,” Jackson writes. During the war, hundreds of thousands of slaves fled plantations in the South, essentially forcing the end of the practice. Just before the Civil War started, the enslaved were uniting and rebelling. In an essay titled “Lincoln gets way too much credit for freeing enslaved Black people” by Wellesley history Professor Kellie Carter Jackson, Jackson argues that enslaved people took action that ultimately forced elected officials to end slavery. Lincoln was originally, after all, not an abolitionist. ![]() Some historians argue that Lincoln is given too much credit for emancipation, and not enough was given to Black abolitionists and the former slaves themselves. And local stories too, like Paul Cuffe from Cuttyhunk, the son of a freed slave who became an abolitionist and one of the wealthiest men in the country. ![]() He urges us to learn more about the abolitionists like Frederick Douglass and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. Jones is director of outreach and docent tour guide for the African American Heritage Trail of Martha’s Vineyard. It’s a moment to learn American history, and not just the “tip of the iceberg” that we learn in school, as Islander Larry Jones told us. ![]() Juneteenth is also a time to reflect on the struggles and efforts of Black leaders that led to emancipation. On the Island and across the country, June 19, like it was in 1865, will be a moment to celebrate freedom, not just for African Americans, but every American. Gordon Granger and his troops came to Galveston, Texas, to inform the enslaved people, where word had not yet reached, that they were free. Emancipation was issued in 1863, but it wasn’t until 1865 - June 19 - that Major Gen.
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