Juneteenth Is Misguided

First off, let me say that I applaud the zeal and dedication of those who organize juneteenth celebrations around the country. It is a commendable effort to educate our people about this aspect of our history in America. Having so said, and At the risk of receiving universal condemnation from the Afrikan community, I humbly declare that these juneteenth celebrations are mis-guided and are based on false historical premises!

Juneteenth is a holiday in the state of Texas in recognition of the receipt by enslaved Afrikans who were the last to receive word on June 19, 1865, that they were freed via President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation signed January 1, 1863. Since that time, Afrikans in Texas have celebrated Juneteenth, and it is now becoming a national celebration.

So, what's the problem? The Emancipation Proclamation did not free any enslaved Afrikans in Texas or any other place! First, it was only a "Proclamation" which Black's Law Dictionary defines as an official announcement, usually by a government entity. Being, so, it was not a law, and did not have the force and effect of law. Further, it wasn't designed to free anyone. It was a political statement that had not teeth, legally unenforceable, and even conciliatory to the enslavers. Why is this? Because Lincoln never intended to free the Captured Afrikans.

In a letter to Horace Greeley, Editor of the New York Tribune of Aug. 22, 1862, Lincoln responded to Greeley's criticism that his administration lacked direction and resolve, by stating, --"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union and is not to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it."

Now here is a man wrestling with a political dilemma, a raging war, political dissension in his stronghold in the North, and in the South, he's trying to find a way to placate the Confederacy amid the need to do something about the enslaved Afrikans (the so-called 'negro' problem).

So after much deliberation, he issues the infamous Emancipation Proclamation as a political problem-solver. The problem however, with this document from an Afrikan perspective, is that it didn't free any enslaved Afrikans. Let's read from the document,

"Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United State, order and designate as the states and parts of states wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, , Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafouche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said States and parts of States are, and hence forward shall be free."

A lofty statement, but it had no power simply because the states cited therein, and as stated therein, including Texas, had seceded from the Union, and therefore Lincoln, lacking legal jurisdiction over them, had no authority to order them to do anything!! It's a situation analogous to you or me ordering freedom for all the brothers and sisters locked up in the prisons and jails of this country. It won't work; neither did his proclamation. These states had formed their own separate government known as the Confederate States of America. They had their own President, their own Constitution, their own congress and Capital (Richmond, VA), their own Army, Navy, currency, flag, and importantly, they controlled millions of acres of land in the states of the Confederacy! And even more indicative of Lincoln's political games to placate the southern enslavers, in places such as, locally, Norfolk and Portsmouth, VA, Where the Union did have political control, Lincoln exempted those cities from the effects of his proclamation, and he totally ignored enslaved border states such as Maryland!! In areas of the country where he had political authority and could have freed our Ancestors, he chose not to do so! This is your 'Great Emancipator' as you were taught in school!

In my area, some Blacks have organized Juneteenth celebrations that include Confederate Civil War re-enactments!. This is a travesty and an insult to our Ancestors and to our selves. To give the sons and daughters of the enslavers the chance to gloat about their ancestors efforts to keep our Ancestors enslaved, and to proudly fly and sell copies of their Confederate Battle flag is sickening!! When we participate in the demeaning and disparagement of our own history, no people will respect us, because we don't respect ourselves. You don't find the so-called Jews giving equal air time to Nazis and Hitler, nor Americans recognizing the British on the Fourth of July. What's wrong with us?

So, getting word of this so-called 'emancipation' document in Texas 2+ years later may have been a cause for celebration then because our Ancestors did not have the opportunity to actually read this document. But, celebrate or not, it still did not free them.

However, since the Union was seemingly beginning to lose the war since it did not have a significant military victory in over eight months, Lincoln shrewdly inserted language in the Proclamation to allow our Ancestors to join the Union Armed Forces and thereby, fight for their own freedom!! This additional Black manpower caused a monumental change in the North's military fortunes, and has been seen to be a deciding factor in the North's ultimate victory, especially at bloody battlegrounds such as Appomatox!! And with the military defeat of the South, came the liberation of our Ancestors. This prodigious contribution of our Ancestors to their own liberation should be the focus of Juneteenth: the fact that our Ancestors took up arms and fought to liberate themselves!!

In 1884, French Sculptor, Frederic Bartholdi presented a gift to America of his monumental statue "Lady Liberty" or the Statue of Liberty. However, the statue that now stands in New York Harbor is not the original statue that Bartholdi crafted. Bartholdi, an abolitionist sympathizer, had instead sculpted the model shown on the back page of this essay. As you can see, this statue has a chain in her left hand, and the remnant of the broken chains at her feet. The broken chains were meant to symbolize the victory our ancestors gained in battle in the Civil War over the oppressive chains of their enslavement. Bartholdi's original model was intended to honor our Ancestors gallant efforts to free themselves from enslavement, not to signify America's independence from Britain in 1776, over 100 years earlier! That, however, is the big lie being told to millions of visitors to the statue, but in fact, the original model of the Statue of Liberty represents Afrikan liberation, not America's!. The original model never saw the light of day for political and racist reasons. America could never allow a statue honoring its enslaved Afrikans to grace New York harbor! Neither the South or the North would stand for it. And, of course, Lincoln wasn't too thrilled at the attainment of freedom for our Ancestors. In fact, he sought ways to solve the "Negro Problem" by deporting our Ancestors to Afrika!!

If the French could seek to honor our Ancestors victory over enslavement, why can't we? We need to remember to honor our own positive actions, not the dubious actions of some president that were done for his own political salvation. To base the celebration on a document that had no power and to ignore our Ancestors own efforts for freedom is, as I have said, mis-guided. Why are we so quick to recognize others and hesitant to recognize self?

Juneteenth should have major moments and tributes of praise and recognition to our Ancestors. There should be plays and skits, songs, spoken word, and dramas telling this story over and over. Our Ancestors sacrifices and, most of all, their story of liberation should be the underlying foundation and the overarching star by which we celebrate Juneteenth.

Kwasi Imhotep
kwasimhotep at aol.com

"And with this knowledge we can change the world, if first we change ourselves."
Dr. John Henrik Clarke

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