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Lewis: Juneteenth is an African American celebration that acknowledges the end of slavery for some in the United States. We’ll take a look at that history and the future of this event, next, on Black Issues Forum.
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Lewis: Hello, everyone, and welcome to Black Issues Forum. I’m Mitchell Lewis. June 19, 1865 or Juneteenth for short, for many African Americans this is considered the official date of freedom from enslavement. On this edition of Black Issues Forum we will discuss historical events that led to the creation of Juneteenth as well as how Juneteenth is recognized today. There are Juneteenth celebrations big and small happening all over the state. The city of Greensboro has one of the longest running and one of its annual features is a short play written by the state director of the National Association of Juneteenth Lineage. Our producer Deborah Holt visited Greensboro to give you a preview of the play and talk to the people behind this simple but meaningful tribute.
[SINGING]
Fortune: The setting is a plantation in Galveston, Texas, 1865 on June the 19th. That’s why it’s called Juneteenth. So I was trying to depict what it must have been like on that last day that they were enslaved. They had been shining shoes, they had been washing clothes. There was food that they worked with and prepared but they didn’t necessarily, they couldn’t eat it. They had this dialogue going on among themselves, you know, and all. And I am sure by the time they had heard that other slaves were free--
[PLAY DIALOGUE]
Fortune: But they had no means of walking off that plantation and some of the things, you know, they were saying, you know, we were so oppressed and things that happen, like when you started to, you tried to escape the punishment that you suffered and all. So sometimes they, uh, they had to resort like they said to singing because singing you could ease the pain.
[SINGING]
Holt: The talent in Pat’s play are all volunteers many of whom are members of Ujama Merchants United Inc., a sponsoring organization of Greensboro’s annual day long Juneteenth festival.
Neal: Volunteers come together and we have music, entertainment. We educate people who on Juneteenth as far as what Juneteenth is all about. Because a lot of people, even some of our educators are not that familiar with Juneteenth.
Holt: Lack of knowledge or misinformation about Juneteenth is indeed quite common. Another of the members of UMU Inc. is Janet Stewart. She runs the kiddy-corner of the Juneteenth festival and reveals how she learned about the event.
Stewart: I actually learned about Juneteenth, with my daughter, I got her the Addy books. And in there it had about the Juneteenth. So in the book it tells about the life, the story of Addy, an African American girl growing up. Uh, and that’s how I learned about Juneteenth. [LAUGHS] Reading her book.
Holt: Were you surprised?
Stewart: I was. Uh, I didn’t realize, I mean, because that’s something they didn’t teach us in school. You never heard about it the whole time I was in school. All through high school or college.
Holt: To help with the education component in the Juneteenth celebrations Janet is sponsoring an essay and poetry contest for children and students of all ages. And she’s awarding prizes from her own business as an incentive for kids to learn more deeply about Juneteenth. As for the play actors from the youngest to the oldest, Pat does her part to ensure that they not only have fun acting in the play but that they walk away with understanding of the history.
[PLAY DIALOGUE]
Sanders: Pat is our history buff. So what she’ll do is take, give them more a head’s up on what could have happened, what would have happened, give them more history of what it was like back in the old days. She does a lot of studying with history.
Mayor Johnson: You know, Pat’s one of those sheroes for me that keeps the history alive, that keeps the things we need to celebrate before us. I don’t know of what other than the Emancipation we could rejoice more about.
Fortune: Some people will read about it, some people I can tell about it, but some people need a visual thing and I think that we have been able to do that with the play.
[SINGING]
Lewis: And you can catch the entire play plus all of the Juneteenth festivities in Greensboro at Festival Park Saturday, June 28th. And for more information about Juneteenth celebrations where you are, you can visit us online at unctv.org/bif and we will have links to other sites.
Right now let’s meet today’s guests to find out more about this historical day. I’d like to introduce Dr. Freddie Parker, Professor of History at North Carolina Central University and Phyllis Coley, publisher of Spectacular Magazine and founder of the Juneteenth celebration in Durham. And to the both of you, welcome to Black Issues Forum.
All: Thank you, Mitch.
Lewis: Fred, I’ll start off with you, from a historical perspective, what led to the creation and celebration of Juneteenth?
Parker: Well, as it turns out the Emancipation Proclamation that was drafted by Abraham Lincoln and put into effect January 1st, 1863 brought about a proposed ending to the institution of slavery. People across the country were jubilant that the president had issued this proclamation. However, the document itself was designed essentially to ensure the north, to ensure the south rather, that the north was still in control. It essentially was a war measure and designed to protect those individuals whom Lincoln hoped would run to Union lines. That is, those slaves from the south who would run to the Union lines. He wanted to protect them. However, as the war drew on through 1863 and 1864 and into 1865 people looked at that document as their salvation. And as generals rode through the south telling, after the south was devastated by war, they were defeated, and as those generals rode through and told slaves that you are now free, of course, it was a day of jubilee for them as they rode through. People living in Galveston, Texas, did not know that the war had come to an end. And when Gordon Granger, General Gordon Granger rode through Galveston in 1865 and read them the general order number three indicating that slavery had come to an end they were, they were of course jubilant and were happy that slavery had ended. And so for them it was their day of jubilee. It happened on June 19th, 1865 and so we call it Juneteenth.
Lewis: And, Phyllis, you are the founder of the Juneteenth celebration in Durham. Why did you decide that it was important to make Durham aware of Juneteenth?
Coley: We started out thinking that because of the history, because of the surrender that even happened here, although it was not in June, didn’t happen in June, it happened in April, Durham still had a lot of history that had to do with that Civil War and the ending of slavery. So we thought that it was just important that Durham and that we start to celebrate what was happening here because so much of our economy and so much of the things that have happened in Durham came as a result of that surrender that happened in April. So although it wasn’t June it still was, it was very much a part of history. When that surrender happened at Bennett’s Place the soldiers, both the Union and the Confederate soldiers, according to my research, stayed here in Durham and they had a celebration that day. At that celebration they smoked Brightleaf tobacco which was something that Washington Duke brought in. When they all went back to their respective homes they had never tasted this kind of tobacco. They loved it. And they sent back and started ordering it. And this is how Washington Duke made his money. And so from that, those dollars came Duke University, came American Tobacco. And it trickled down, you know, then there was North Carolina Mutual, there’s North Carolina Central University. So all of our history is tied into, and our economy was tied into the ending of slavery and that surrender that happened in Durham.
Lewis: A question for the both of you. In the piece that we saw earlier, one of the folks said that they had never heard of Juneteenth. And I am curious to the both of you and, Fred, I’ll start with you, what was your reaction when you first heard of Juneteenth?
Parker: I guess I must have heard of it when I was a student in college back in the 1970s. Uh, had never heard of the term Juneteenth itself. I knew about the Emancipation Proclamation, surprised at those folks down in Galveston, Texas got the word just a little bit late. But I think what has hit me most in our quest to be as accurate as we possibly can about the Juneteenth, I think it’s important that we understand that most people across the country heard about the Emancipation Proclamation but blacks were not freed as a result of that Emancipation Proclamation. People in Maryland, people in North Carolina, in Louisiana, heard about the Emancipation Proclamation but the point is that what actually brought freedom was the 13th Amendment that was written actually in January of 1865 and of course the amendment itself was ratified in December of 1965. But the reason we have that Juneteenth celebration is that people got word just two months after the war had really officially come to an end. So they were just simply late getting not word that the Emancipation Proclamation had been written. They were late getting word that the war itself had come to an end.
Lewis: Phyllis, your reaction when you first heard of Juneteenth.
Coley: My reaction and I think that it was a little bit later than in the ‘70s and I was probably not until the late ‘80s that I heard about Juneteenth. And that was from having some friends that were from Texas and they talked about Juneteenth and at that time I was living in New York and we just started to hear about it and just doing, being a history buff and a research buff that I am, I started looking at it. And then being back here in Durham, moving back to Durham and I started researching and doing things and went out to Bennett’s Place actually, and started realizing that Durham has such a rich history and just such, so much that was happening. My hearing about it was, I think the first thing I wanted to know was why didn’t I ever hear about this in school? Why was this not in our history books? And then I have a son, who at that time was/is, well, is in high school and I am wondering why is he not learning about it? What he knows about Juneteenth is from working with me. So why is this not in our history books?
Lewis: And, Fred, you talked about this earlier because the Emancipation Proclamation was written or passed January 1st, 1863. Almost two and a half years later the folks in Texas get the news. And there have been so many scenarios out there as to what happened as far as why they didn’t get the news as other states did. Talk about some of those scenarios.
Parker: One scenario is that they were not told because slave masters wanted to ensure that the next crop was pulled in. They wanted to continue obviously to continue a system that they had been accustomed to since the 1830s when Texas became a state. So it was very difficult. You must understand that if you had had an institution like slavery and it was an institution, it is not something that you want to get rid of immediately. And because of the social relations that existed between blacks and whites, the idea that I am superior and that you are inferior, it’s not anything that you want to quickly dissolve. But primarily it was that the rumors were that essentially they simply did not want to end the institution of slavery because it had been around for so long.
Lewis: Phyllis, now that you have become aware of Juneteenth and you have put on several programs, tell us about some of the things that you have done to try to make people more aware of Juneteenth.
Coley: We have done printed materials at our Juneteenth celebration we always have program books. After the first year, we are into our, we have done our fourth year now, after the first year people were walking up to me and saying, “Well, do you have any printed information. We don’t understand what this is about.” And so since that time I have always made sure that we have printed information, that there is as much information as I can put in people’s hands in a form that they will hold onto it and they can take it home. Because most of the people that come up to me say, “I want to tell my children about it, “ or, “I want to tell my grandchildren about this. I want to make them understand.” And then there are the people who said, “You know, what are you saying? Are you saying June the 10th? Are you saying--?” And I get a lot of that. And so I get those people who have to—we have to explain it. So what we have done is that we always make sure that after our celebration which is a fun celebration but that in addition to the fun that we insert educational information. See, I’m a believer that you can’t just sit people down and just give them a big dose. See, you have to give people information in small doses so that they can take it in. And so we do that rather than just sit down and we have a two hour conversation.
Lewis: Now, Fred, in doing our research we talked with Dr. Fitz Brundage, who is a history professor at UNC-Chapel Hill. And he was talking about the appeal of the June 19th celebration of Juneteenth. And when you look at the Emancipation Proclamation and as well as the 13th Amendment, that’s in the months of, say, December and January. Why the appeal for this to take place in June?
Parker: I think January 1st is mundane. The fact that the Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1st, that’s mundane. What is spectacular is to talk about June 19th and the fact that there were black people out in Galveston, Texas that did not get word. They are working and working and working way beyond the point at which slavery came to an end. So it is more sensational, I think. And then it is summertime. It is the time when everything is in blossom, everything has bloomed and so it is an opportunity to have a gaiety and a good time. January 1st, uh, it’s mundane. So I think primarily it’s because that June 19th day surrounding this event where people were not given their freedom when they should have been given their freedom is a bit more spectacular.
Lewis: In looking at that January date, especially the first part of the year, is there also perhaps a tie-in as it relates to the selling of slaves?
Parker: I’m not sure there’s a connection between the two. January 1st?
Lewis: Or just the beginning of the year, was there any type of connection as it relates to, say, families, slave families being separated during that time?
Parker: No, I can’t see a connection there. You might help me to see the connection, though.
Lewis: No, I was just checking because I had read somewhere where they were saying that they may be a possibility that the January, the early January date was a time where families were separated so they said, well, perhaps we won’t do it in January and move it to June where it is more festive. But, Phyllis, we talked about the Juneteenth celebration and playing Devil’s Advocate here, you know, there are some people out there who say, “Well, look, we’ve got, you got the Dr. Martin Luther King holiday. Why do we need Juneteenth? What’s the big difference between Juneteenth and the King holiday?” What would you tell them?”
Coley: That we are celebrating two very different things and two very different places in our history as black people. That Martin Luther King’s holiday is celebrating the Civil Right’s Movement. It’s celebrating the right to vote. It’s celebrating desegregtation. It is celebrating the right to go to school, to eat in a restaurant. It’s a whole different thing than celebrating being free. Because even in, because we are celebrating the ending of slavery which was a very major inst—as he said a major institution. So it is two different things. And two different places in our history. And almost 100 years, 110 years different in time. So we are celebrating, there is just a celebration of two different things. So I think that I would tell people that in studying their history that we need to do that. Also it is celebrating African American independence, Juneteenth. So that for those people that celebrate independence on July 4th, we are celebrating the 4th of 1776. I think that the question should be, why are we celebrating, we as black people, celebrating the 4th of July? Because in 1776 we were not independent. You know, so I think that should be the question and that’s what I usually come back, that is usually my answer.
Lewis: Okay, would it be because we are Americans first? Could that be a possibility for the celebration?
Coley: But we weren’t, but America, but we were not independent. We were fighting, 1776 and let me let the history buff tell you, the history professor tell you about that, but in 1776 when we were fighting for independence as Americans we still weren’t recognized as Americans. The Declaration of Independence or whatever did not include us. So, no, we were not a part of that. So I think that’s the question.
Lewis: Well, let’s move along to another area here. Both of you had talked about education and the lack of people knowing about Juneteenth. And to the both of you, Fred, I’ll start off with you, what do you think that can be done to try and make sure that especially our younger folks know about Juneteenth and other important issues in black history?
Parker: I think exactly what Phyllis is doing, has been doing over the past four years is important. I think that we need to take into our churches. We need to take it into our institutions, our organizations. Because your previous question about there is a King holiday, there is this day, why do we need Juneteenth? I honestly believe that we need as many significant dates in the black experience to help our children understand history in general but surely that the black experience in this country. And so Juneteenth can be a launching pad to do what Phyllis has done. I understand that she is talking about in her upcoming celebration bringing young black men and children together or older black men and younger black men together, making all of these connections. And as often as we can we need to celebrate that black past. Because we have some children out there that we need to save. And whatever we can use to save those children, be it Juneteenth, be it an Emancipation day, be it a King holiday, whatever we can use to help our children understand that they are kings and queens and that they ought not to be fighting and shooting and killing each other. That we ____.
Coley: We talk so much today in Durham and across North Carolina, across the country, about gang violence and we talk about so many other things. And one of the reasons that we are so involved and I say we, it is our committee that does this event, that we are so dedicated to doing this is because we look at gang violence and all those things as a modern day form of slavery or of bondage. So as long as our children are involved in all of those kinds of things we still have a bondage that we need to free our children from. So it is not just about ending that institution because when the institution of slavery ended there was something else to keep us in bondage. And so we have to continue to fight and continue to educate because if you don’t know where you are coming from, you cannot understand where you are going and so making our young people understand there rich culture and their history and their heritage, is what makes, is going to clear, free their minds. Last year our theme was emancipated bodies, liberated minds. Meaning that because you emancipate the body, if you don’t liberate the mind, if you do not get them into another mindset and another form of thinking then you are never going to be free.
Lewis: And one other thing. Here in North Carolina are there any moves taking place to say officially observer Juneteenth?
Coley: Yes, there is. Uh, Representative Larry Womble introduced a bill last year, well, earlier this year, uh, to make Juneteenth a national day of observance. And that bill has passed and right now it is waiting for Governor Easley’s signature. So we don’t know if that’s going to happen in the short session or if it will happen with the, our next governor. But there is a move to make that happen. And if that happens North Carolina will become the 26th state to make that happen. I had an opportunity to meet with Dr. Ron Myers. Dr. Ron Myers came to Durham in April and we had an opportunity to sit down. He is the Executive Director of the National Juneteenth Celebration. And on June 19th, uh, there is a large celebration in Washington. Barack Obama, Senator Obama was the keynote speaker this past year. He is an invited guest again this year. And that was a move to make it a national day of observance. So as we can get, if we, once we get three-fourths of the states to pass it then we have a good chance of getting it as a national holiday.
Lewis: Unfortunately we have to stop it here. I thank you so much for being here today. And if you would like to get in touch with our guest or obtain a copy or transcript of this show, visit us online at unctv.org/bif. When you visit be sure to give us your comments and program suggestions. You can also call us on the BIFline at 919-549-7167.
For Black Issues Forum, I am Mitchell Lewis. Thank you for joining us.
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