I’m not sure what is the appropriate way to wish everyone a Happy Day of Celebration, but today is known as “Juneteenth” and with all that is going on in our Nation we all need to pause and exchange our most celebratory wishes to everyone we meet. Today, June 19th, is the one hundred and fifty fifth anniversary of the day, in 1865, when General Gordon Granger of the Union Army, standing on the balcony of Galveston’s Ashton Villa, read the contents of General Order No. 3 announcing to the City of Galveston, Texas that all of the slaves in Texas were now free in accordance with the Emancipation Proclamation which had been signed by President Lincoln on September 22nd, 1862. The Emancipation Proclamation freed only the slaves that were freed in the States that were in rebellion against the United States of America. The slaves that were resident in the Union States remained slaves until the ratification of the 13th Amendment on December 6th, 1865.
Juneteenth has been a Texas State holiday since the beginning, but I think we all need to get behind the current push to make it a National Holiday. The abhorrent and immoral institution of slavery is a major part of the reason our United States of America came to be the Nation that we have become. It is high time for all Americans to share equally the privileges and immunities of this great Nation.
HAPPY JUNETEENTH!!!!!!
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