Juneteenth

            This past Monday was our newest Federal holiday, Juneteenth.  It is a commemoration of General Order No. 3 where enslaved people in Galveston, Texas learned they were freed.  Recently I purchased a small volume by historian Annette Gordon-Reed.  She is an African-American born in Texas and whose family ties go deep into Texan history.  In a series of essays, she writes of the African-American experience in Texas over the centuries.  Here is the information about this book:  Annette Gordon-Reed, On Juneteenth, Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, New York, London, 2021.

            This the core of General Order No. 3:

The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.  This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them and hired labor.  The freedmen are advised to remain at their present homes and work for wages.  They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.

            The Order was based on the Emancipation Proclamation.  The actual end of slavery would happen nationwide with the passage and ratification of The Thirteenth Amendment.

            Even within General Order No. 3 you can see restrictions and limitations.  Those limitations would grow over the decades as Jim Crow Laws took effect and voting restrictions were enacted.  There are still disparities built into the systems that define life in this country.

            The author tells the stories of restrictions and overcoming those limitations.  She tells the stories of her grandparents, her parents, her town.  She writes with a love for Texas as well as a critical evaluation of practices and policies.  She concludes with these words:

About the difficulties of Texas:  Love does not require taking an uncritical stance toward the object of one’s affection.  In truth, it often requires the opposite.  We can’t be of real service to the hopes we have for places – and people, ourselves included – without a clear-eyed assessment of their (and our) strengths and weaknesses.  That often demands a willingness to be critical, sometimes deeply so.  How that is done matters, of course.  Striking the right balance can be extremely hard.

            She’s correct.  Paying attention to our history with a critical eye that also considers the implications of that history to others in our midst who were marginalized and silenced, is very hard work.  Yet, that is what we are to do if we are to do the work of justice and peace for all.

Rev. Clara