On June 19, 1865, Union Army general Gordon Granger announced General Order No. 3 which proclaimed and enforced freedom of enslaved people in Texas. That was then the last state of the Confederacy which allowed its citizens to “own” other humans as “property.” This was two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by Abraham Lincoln.
According to a Wikipedia article, “Although the Emancipation Proclamation declared an end to slavery in the Confederate States, slavery was still legal and practiced in two Union border states – Delaware and Kentucky – until December 6, 1865, when ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution abolished chattel slavery nationwide.”
On June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law. This act recognizes Juneteenth as a federal holiday.
It’s fitting that this day, which celebrates the long-overdue and unfairly-delayed freedom from the oppression of slavery, is in the month of June, which is also Pride Month. When bigotry toward non- cis-straight people is combined with racism, you get the incredibly high rate of violence against LGBTQIA+ persons of color we see today.
The racism in America has not magically disappeared. We still have a lot of work to do. We still have systemic racism to identify and root out. We still have policies to make right. We still have hearts to change. But we can do this if we join together for the long haul.
And working together, standing up to the hate and spreading education and awareness, we will see things continue to change for the better. Little by little until some day we will all be treated as equals, with dignity and genuine respect. Let’s embody those qualities as we expose deep-rooted hatred until it is driven into history and replaced with empathy, compassion, kindness, fairness, and love.
