June 18, 2025

Wednesday Word . . . Juneteenth

Tomorrow is June 19 and the celebration of Juneteenth, which originated at the end of the Civil War.  On September 22, 1862, President Lincoln announced that the Emancipation Proclamation would go into effect on January 1, 1863.  On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, TX, and announced the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation – 900 days after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, 71 days after Robert E. Lee surrendered, and 24 days after the Confederate army in Texas was disbanded.

This event, unfortunately, did not lead to immediate or widespread freedom and equality for former slaves and people of color.  Jim Crow laws, the rise of the KKK, redlining, HOAs, the disparity in the GI Bill, segregation, and other policies upholding systemic racism worked to ensure that non-whites were “kept in their place” for generations – including up to today.

As we continue to struggle to live into our baptismal covenant promise “to respect the dignity of every human being,” it’s important to see where we fall short.  On the arrival of Juneteenth, I encourage to read, listen, and contemplate some of these words of freedom and equality.

Frederick Douglass and “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman” speech

“Wehold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that theyare endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights . . .”

“With liberty and justice for all.”

Blessings,