By Chloe Yang, Dr. Robert Sege, and Dr. Dina Burstein, 6/19/20, positiveexperience.org/blog
The art above is “Fireworks At Oak Bluffs,” scratchboard, by Sonia Lynn Sadler.
Only 154 years ago today, the last enslaved people in the United States were told they were free, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger issued the following order in Galveston, Texas:
“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 becomes that between employer and hired labor.” –General Order Number 3
Although enslaved people were symbolically freed on Juneteenth, we are all still waiting for “absolute equality.” The recent police murders of Rayshard Brooks, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and many others are only recent examples of systemic racism, entrenched in all sectors of our society.
Comments (0)