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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