Juneteenth – Time to Contemplate – Not Just Celebrate
The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, declared that all enslaved people in Confederate-States were to be set free. This proclamation was made during the Civil War, as you would expect, the Southern States completely ignored this proclamation and wholeheartedly committed to the continuation of the brutalization and dehumanization of Black people.
After the North had defeated the Southern States in May of 1865, on June 19, 1865, U.S. Major General Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3 in Texas, informing the people that all enslaved individuals were now free. This day became known as Juneteenth, combining “June” and “19th.”
For generations, Black Americans have celebrated Juneteenth with joy through various forms, including parades, street festivals, musical performances, and cookouts. However, I believe that Juneteenth should be a day of Contemplation more than a time of Celebration.
And here’s why:
In 1865, towards the end of the Civil War, Union General William T. Sherman issued Special Field Orders No. 15. The goal of this Order was to allocate land to hundreds of the freed families in plots no larger than 40 acres. This idea of land redistribution actually came about from a discussion between General Sherman and 20 Black community leaders in Savannah, Georgia. Though, in all honesty, the mule was not initially part of the order, it later became associated with the promise because the mule was essential to working the land.
Tragically, the promise of 40 acres was never fulfilled and the nation’s approximately 3.9 million former slaves were left destitute, homeless, and unprotected from the vicious retaliation and brutality that was to come for the next 100 years.
One could only Imagine how different U.S. history would be if this promise were kept and had been fully implemented by freed Black people. However, this was never the purpose for ending slavery. The mindset of white people at that time and a relatively small group of white people today was and is that Black people are inferior to white people and that we didn’t and don’t deserve to be treated as full citizens of the United States of America.
How can we truly celebrate June 19th, 1865, when for the next 100 years Black people were subjected to “Jim Crow” and the Black Codes, which were laws implemented to subjugate the “negro”. To ensure that he never rises to the level of the white man.
From 1865 to 1964, which is when the Civil Rights bill was passed, white folk could and would lynch, beat, and kill Black people with impunity. We were relegated to inferior schools, inferior housing, inferior healthcare, poverty wages and the threats of death if you stepped out of line by having the audacity to stand up to a white person.
For those one hundred years, White America was committed to stunting our ability to acquire economic independence, and to compete on a level playing field through the enforcement of “Jim Crow” and the “Black Codes” to the systemically impede our path towards prosperity and denying us the opportunity to build and pass on wealth to future generations.
The wealth that white America has generated from our free labor for over two hundred years is what we should be contemplating on Juneteenth. I think about the enslaved African whose whole life was in slavery, their children in slavery, their grandchildren in slavery, their great-grandchildren in slavery. Therefore, as far as I am concerned, I don’t want any holidays, or apologies, I want the damage repaired, which can be remedied through adequate reparations. Reparations are not difficult and certainly not impossible. This nation sends hundreds of billions of dollars to other nations in military and economic aid year after year without blinking an eye.
So, on this day, June 19th, 2024, I took the time to contemplate how reparations should and could work. Here is what I came up with: The Federal taxes that are paid by Black Americans are put into an escrow account every year for 5 to 7 years. This amounts to about 50 to 75 billion dollars a year.
If we genuinely want reparations to be the historical and monumental event that it should be, we must use these funds wisely. This requires the formation of a governing body to supervise the use and disbursement of the funds.
For example, every year, 10 percent of the funds would be disbursed to Black Americans with an ancestral line to the enslaved Africans. The 90 percent would be used to rebuild the infrastructure of our communities. We will rebuild our schools, construct decent and affordable housing, build community centers, and offer financial support to Black entrepreneurship. business ventures.
This is just one idea, there are many ways to fund reparations, it’s just a matter of “Want to”. Juneteenth is certainly a significant day in our history, and I am not trying to diminish its importance; however, it is not the pinnacle moment of our history here in America, that moment is still to come.
I’ll end this with my patent closing statement:
The purpose of Black America Rising is to present an alternative to the civil rights movement and the Black Lives Matter movement as paths to our prosperity and equality here in America. It is my belief that neither of these organizations or movements effectively address the continued marginalization and disenfranchisement of the majority of Black Americans. The goal is to create a National Organization with a National Agenda formulated and implemented by us, the descendants of enslaved Africans in America.
Final note: When you have some time take a look at “The Plan” on our website: