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From:
Yojsouth <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 23 Jan 2007 16:07:02 -0500
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Well, here are some others that are celebrated in some states:

National Dimpled Chad Day (Jan. 4)

Hoodie-Hoo Day (Feb. 20) (You wave a beach blanket at the sun and shout Hoodie-Hoo twice and it guarantees warmer weather)

 Be a Millionaire" Day (May 16)

Eliza Doolittle Day (May 20)


In a message dated 01/23/07 16:03:00 Eastern Standard Time, [log in to unmask] writes:
Why would you not want to celebrate the end of slavery, unless you miss 
it?  Even year people of my faith celebrate our release from slavery in 
Egypt some 3,000 years ago; surely African Americans should do the same; 
as should white Americans who can celebrate the end of their tragic 
relationship to the sytem. 

Forgetting slavery would mean forgetting a central piece of American 
history; forgetting the experience of 40% or more of the Virginia 
population (if we include the masters and their families it would be 
about 75%) up to 1865; it would be forgetting the cause of the civil war 
and the reason the Confederacy was created (Slavery was the 
"cornerstone" of the Confederacy according Confederate Vice President 
Alexander Stephens).   

Juneteenth is problematic for Va. although it is recognized as the day 
slavery was finally over in Texas.  I would think Emancipation Day (Jan. 
1) or the day of the ratification of the 13th Amendment, would make more 
sense. 

Paul FInkelman 

Paul Finkelman 
President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law 
    and Public Policy 
Albany Law School 
80 New Scotland Avenue 
Albany, New York   12208-3494 

518-445-3386 
[log in to unmask] 
>>> [log in to unmask] 01/23/07 3:45 PM >>> 
Slavery, and the end thereof, is something better forgotten than 
celebrated. 



In a message dated 01/23/07 15:43:07 Eastern Standard Time, 
[log in to unmask] writes: 
On Jan 23, 2007, at 3:30 PM, Yojsouth wrote: 

> Just another made up PC holiday like Kwanza. 
> 
> 

This is inaccurate.  In Austin, Texas, "Juneteenth was first celebrated 
in 1867 under the direction of the Freedmen's Bureau, and became part 
of the calendar of public events by 1872."  More at 
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/JJ/lkj1.html, 
including bibliography. 

Its observance in Virginia is another matter, of course, though there 
were celebrations recorded widely when news of Emancipation reached 
Virginia's slaves and, as Harold Forsythe notes, commemorative 
celebrations followed for many years. 

Why not research the day when most who commemorated Emancipation in 
Virginia chose to do so (April 9?  January 1?), and encourage official 
commemorations then? 

--Jurretta Heckscher 

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