When slavery really ended...

Despite the Emancipation Proclamation having been issued on January 1, 1863, many slaves in Confederate states remained enslaved for two and a half more years, until the victorious Union forces arrived to announce their freedom. On June 19, 1865, General Gordon Granger and his troops traveled to Galveston, Texas, and announced General Order #3, which announced that the slaves were freed.

General Order #3 as published in the Galveston Tri-Weekly News on June 20, 1865. (image from Battlefield Trust). For more information about Juneteenth, go to this post from Battlefield Trust.

Soon after, freed slaves began to celebrant an annual holiday they named Juneteenth, a name which eventually stuck nationwide. Ironically, abolition in the entire United States would not take affect for several more months. Because the Emancipation Proclamation had only freed slaves in rebellious states, slaves remained in any slave states loyal to the Union until December 3, 1865, when the 13th Amendment was finally ratified. Even the 13th Amendment allowed slavery to continue as punishment for a crime. In so many ways, Juneteenth represents the the fits and starts we make as Americans in our efforts to create a more perfect union and ensure the general welfare of our citizens. As Dr. King said, "the arc of the moral universe is long." While we sometimes wish it would bend toward justice a little faster, it's through our efforts, we the people, that it bends towards justice at all, and it never hurts to be reminded that we're standing on the shoulders of giants who took many small steps on the long path toward a better Union.

As we think about Juneteenth tomorrow, why not take some time to celebrate how far we've come by stopping by the unveiling of Towards Freedom at 11 AM on Juneteenth. For more information, go to the Lexington Freedom Train website: https://www.lexfreedomtrain.org/project

And if you're free, we'd love to have you stop by Rush Hour from 4 PM to 6 PM to speak out against the injustices of the Trump administration. For more info, check out the events page.

We'll leave you with the Langston Hughes poem "Let America Be America Again"--let's all rededicate ourselves to an America that fulfills its vast potential. It'll take work, but we're up to the task of carrying the work forward step by step.

"Let America Be America Again"

Let America be America again.

Let it be the dream it used to be.

Let it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let it be that great strong land of love

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is real, and life is free,

Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There’s never been equality for me,

Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?

And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,

I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.

I am the red man driven from the land,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding only the same old stupid plan

Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,

Tangled in that ancient endless chain

Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!

Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!

Of work the men! Of take the pay!

Of owning everything for one’s own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.

I am the worker sold to the machine.

I am the Negro, servant to you all.

I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—

Hungry yet today despite the dream.

Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!

I am the man who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream

In the Old World while still a serf of kings,

Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,

That even yet its mighty daring sings

In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

That’s made America the land it has become.

O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas

In search of what I meant to be my home—

For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,

And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,

And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came

To build a “homeland of the free.”

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?

Surely not me? The millions on relief today?

The millions shot down when we strike?

The millions who have nothing for our pay?

For all the dreams we’ve dreamed

And all the songs we’ve sung

And all the hopes we’ve held

And all the flags we’ve hung,

The millions who have nothing for our pay—

Except the dream that’s almost dead today.

O, let America be America again—

The land that never has been yet—

And yet must be—the land where every man is free.

The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME—

Who made America,

Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,

Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,

Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—

The steel of freedom does not stain.

From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,

We must take back our land again,

America!

O, yes,

I say it plain,

America never was America to me,

And yet I swear this oath—

America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,

The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,

We, the people, must redeem

The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

The mountains and the endless plain—

All, all the stretch of these great green states—

And make America again!

In Solidarity and Freedom,

Peaceful Bluegrass Resistance