The Standard July 1, 2023
I must admit that just a few years ago I never had heard the word “Juneteenth” and when I did, it sounded a bit odd. Little did I know that Juneteenth was first celebrated in the state capital of Texas in 1867 and by 1872 had become a regular part of Texas festivities. Like most of us, I remembered from U.S. history class that President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed many slaves. What I did not recall was that this proclamation on January 1, 1863 only declared free those persons enslaved in the Confederacy. This did not extend to border states loyal to the Union, including Kentucky, West Virginia and Delaware. The 13th Amendment, which would amend the U.S Constitution to abolish slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for those duly convicted of crime, passed the Senate in April 1864. Originally, it did not pass in the House. President Lincoln then insisted that its passage be added to the Republican Party platform for the upcoming 1864 Presidential election. This action helped the House finally pass the bill in January 1865. The Joint Resolution of Congress for the 13th Amendment, approved by Lincoln, eventually was ratified by the necessary number of state legislatures in December of 1865.
Almost two and a half years after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, on June 19, 1865, a Union Major General named Gordon Granger arrived with approximately 2,000 troops in Galveston, Texas to spread the word to 250,000 or so slaves that they were free. The news that the abhorrent practice of slavery was abolished in the Confederacy finally reached the westernmost Confederate state. Within a short amount of time, Juneteenth festivities were taking place all across Texas. These celebrations were rooted in praise to God for bringing people to freedom at last. In the early 1900s, the hymn “Lift Every Voice” with lyrics by James Weldon Johnson and music by his brother J. Rosamond Johnson became a hallmark song of the long, harrowing journey of most African Americans.
“Lift every voice and sing, ‘til earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmonies of liberty. Let our rejoicing rise, high as the list’ning skies. Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us. Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us. Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, let us march on ‘til victory is won. Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod, felt in the days when hope unborn had died. Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet, come to the place for which our fathers sighed? We have come over a way, that with tears has been watered. We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, out from the gloomy past, ‘til now we stand at last, where the white gleam of our bright star is cast. God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou who has brought us thus far on the way, Thou who has by Thy might, led us into the light, keep us forever in the path, we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee, shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand, true to our God, true to our native land.”
Juneteenth became an official state holiday in Texas 1980, although it had been celebrated in public schools and by racially-mixed crowds at parades, barbecues and churches in towns and cities for many years before that. On June 15, 2021 the U.S. Senate unanimously approved a bill making June 19 a federal holiday called “Juneteenth National Independence Day” and the next day the U.S. House of Representatives passed it. On June 17 President Joe Biden signed this bipartisan bill into law.
Surely, freedom is cause for celebration for all of us. The words Jesus spoke one Sabbath in Nazareth as he began his ministry still ring true today. “And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him [Jesus]. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, ’The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’” (Luke 4:17-21)
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