Thenceforward, and forever free
Many people in Malvern will be celebrating Juneteenth this weekend, but many more still do not understand where the holiday came from, or why it’s important.
Juneteenth is also known as Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day, Freedom Day and Black Independence Day. It’s a day set aside to recognize the end of slavery. Seems like a great reason to celebrate, frankly, but some people balked when President Biden made it a federal holiday last summer.
Juneteenth is celebrated on June 19 to coincide with June 19, 1865, when Union troops moved through Galveston, Texas and ushered in freedom for enslaved people in the last holdout state of the Confederacy .
Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in Jan. 1863, which granted freedom to enslaved people in seceded states, but it took the ratification of the 13th Amendment two years later— and a wave of Union troops washing over the South— to bring freedom to all enslaved people in America.
Lincoln’s motives in signing the Proclamation are suspect, as the move was likely made more to dampen the Confederate Army’s success by removing its labor force, and less to ensure African Americans their freedom and equality.
Regardless, the signing of the Proclamation signaled a shift in the war, and the eventual end to slavery finally came when Gen. Gordon Granger Issued General Order No. 3, which states:
“The people 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…”
Which is all well and good, until…
“… and the connection heretofore existing between them, become that between employer and hired labor. The freed 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.”
It’s unfortunate to find that even in this final legislation, African Americans were still being controlled, or “advised.” And the bit about “idleness” is a real slap in the face to people who were forced into hard labor up to 14 hours a day during summer months and bore the stripes of the whip on their backs if their efforts were not appreciated. But this bone, this Gen. Order No. 3, was enough to put an official end to a shameful practice
that’s a stain on American history.
Some people remember yearly celebrations marking the day, others have never heard of it before. Malvern will host a Juneteenth Festival Celebration this weekend for the first time since COVID put a damper on everything in 2020, but the holiday has been observed by Malvernites for generations.
The public is invited to join the Juneteenth Celebration today at Centennial Park from 4- 8 p. m., where there will be great food and item vendors, music, a bounce house, a popcorn machine, cotton candy and brilliant speakers from the community who will educate the public on the occasion and promote love, acceptance and appreciation of African American culture and heritage. Juneteenth has been celebrated in African American culture since June 1866 and will hopefully be embraced by other Americans more with each passing year, Hot Spring County included.