The Celebration of Freedom
Principally, when it comes to American values, some American patriotists look toward activism as a way to amend classism and social disobedience. Some Americans look toward the United States federal government in yearning to trust that their vote will help the nation. Some Americans act as bystanders when another individual is in their search for freedom. Through it all, the legislative process is used as a means to implement law. When looking to the United States pass, ratified legislation can be categorized in two prominent concurrent groups: the beneficial and the negative. Prominent laws that have been negative have also implemented new sentiments of divisiveness in the United States stratmosphere of politics. Such negative laws consist of, but are not limited to: Woodrow Wilson’s Sedition Acts, John Adam’s Alien and Sedition Acts, the establishment of slave codes and black codes prior to emancipation of individuals held in slavery and after given freedom from slavery, and the era of Jim Crow laws in the South.
As a result of apprehended history, providing laws that are lastingly beneficial, and thus favor equality for all peoples, is necessary for the betterment of the United States as a nation and as a cooperative people. As a beneficial part of the United States process, favoring racial equality through means of freedom is vital to the strength and unity of the nation, as past wounds of slavery and Jim Crow still echo into present day inequality. Additionally, when looking at prominent American values, freedom is frequently a paramount value of United States society, yet, despite traditionalists’ and modern citizens’ in-depth beliefs of racial equality and how such should be attained, the upheaval of a societal normalcy with the idea of freedom constitutes an acknowledgment of the majority of the population not being regressing back to a similar Jim Crow era of politics.
Hence, one essential process of attaining beneficial legislation is through the acknowledgement of the past. Without legislation, few lasting and beneficial actions can be established conspicuously for the right and equality of all, hence there is a need to remove divisiveness from the field of politics. Therein, legislation favoring equality of peoples represents itself as necessary for the means of a unified country. Likewise, achieving legislation that is equally beneficial toward all peoples does not begin in Congress, but in the recognition of the past, the hearts of the people, and the education of the nation. For the purpose of staying on track within this article, the efficacy of the hearts of the people will not be mentioned.
a painting of the American Civil War
Thereby, when we look to the past, we come to the consequential United States Civil War, a war filled with bloodshed and divisiveness. Contrary to popular belief, the Civil War was originally fought solely to retain the union and prevent the split of the receded states, otherwise known as the Confederacy. Not until near the half-way mark of the war did President Abraham Lincoln declare the Emancipation Proclamation as a wartime measure designed to cripple the Confederacy, not one designed as a means of freeing those held in the bondage of slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation would only progress into the rise of the thirteenth Amendment in 1865 if the Union, which had assumed and integrated the Northern black populace into their military, had won the war.
Therefore, numerous groups of peoples saw the midpoint of the Civil War as an opportunity to establish change. Quakers prominently involved with the Underground Railroad, and more specifically famous abolitionists such as Harriet Tubman, John Brown, and Isaac Hopper, all helped progress a sentiment of necessary moral rights of helping enslaved peoples. Contunued, two famous abolitionists, Fredrick Douglass and William Lloyad Garrison, who persevered in their actions to spread ideals on the wrongs and effects of slavery enacted their own gestures and methodologies of social activism. Frederick Douglass wrote an autobibliography to garner viewage of the direct impact of slavery in his Narrative of the Life Of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. William Lloyd Garrison created The Liberator, a popular abolitionist magazine early century exposé of the occurrences of wrongs done to enslaved peoples on Southern plantations. Additionally, soldiers of all skin colors gave their lives for the freedom of the enslaved.
Following the declaration of the Emancipation Proclamation, throughout the bloody Civil War, one ideology remained constant and persevering: the fight for freedom of all peoples. As a result of this perseverance by a newly concentrated and motivated Union army, the Union army that had previously been underwhelming in the war due to the failed leadership of General Leonidas Polk and General Joseph Hooker, would reach a new highpoint in the war following the capture of Vicksburg by General Ulysses S. Grant. Following the major win at Vicksburg, General William Sherman’s “total war” strategy in Georgia led to a crucial increase in the tenacity and morale of the Union force. Then, on April 9th, 1865, the Union army led by General Grant surrounded Confederate forces at Appomattox Court House. The Union army surrounding Robert E. Lee and the Confederate army in Virginia, led to a an acknowledgment of Union victory in the Civil War, thus the previously mentioned Emancipation Proclamation went into full effect and directly led to the 13th Amendment as a means for abolishing slavery.
the original copy of the Emancipation Proclamation
Two and a half years following the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln and two months following the surrender of the Confederate army to Union force, the black populace of Galveston, Texas was informed on their right to freedom by Union General Gordon Granger. General Granger’s speech to the populace of Galveston stated, “[t]he 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. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly 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” (Henry Louis Gates Jr., What Is Juneteenth?). Thus, a new foundation for freedom proceeded from the actions of Gordon Granger and that of Abraham Lincoln in his novel Emancipation Proclamation. During the post Civil War era, furthered paths for citizenship, equality, and voting rights were established by de jure politics, but not neither in a de facto manner. In this sense, the phraseology of de jure is equivalent to judicial and legislative establishment of a certain topic as law, while de facto is representative of how the ideals and legislation passed by Congress provide lessened regulation over others’ behaviors and how law does not entail actuality.
More specifically, the events of Juneteenth imperatively echo to the future as being a necessary day of national recognition of the events leading up to the emancipation of the black populace of Galveston. Specifically when it comes to the celebration of freedom in the United States, the events of Juneteenth are relevant to modern history in that the celebration of Juneteenth brings significance to the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation as a means of equality, not only as a wartime measure as it was mainly intended to be.
The events of Juneteenth are further imperative in the sense of the day being invoked as a component of Independence Day to the black populace of citizens in the United States. Subsequently, differing peoples and politicians believe the events should be awarded national holiday status. Several generations after Junteenth, and nearly forty-seven states have either days of remembrance toward the efficacy of the Civil War, the Civil War’s result of the surrounding of Confederate General Robert E. Lee at appomattox court house, and the late establishment of de jure freedom toward the Gavelston black populace. Juneteenth is an official state holiday in six states, being the states of Texas, Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, Washington, and Oregon. Every state aside from Hawaii, North Dakota, and South Dakota has declared Juneteenth as a day of observance, rather than a holiday. For Hawaii, North Dakota, and South Dakota, the politics are divisive when it comes to establishing Juneteenth as a holiday or as a statewide day of observance.
Furthermore, online progressive petitions have been calling for change of Juneteenth to be recognized as a national holiday for the Independence Day of black Americans. Additionally, the mother of Juneteenth, Opal Lee, as a social activist and educator concerns her views on current racism in the United States and substantiates her campaign to make Juneteenth a national holiday by stating “[i]t is not lost on me that the summer of 2020 saw the largest support of Juneteenth to be a national holiday because of the death of George Floyd highlighted the systemic racism that still exists because of the residual effects of slavery. We can't let the swell of support just simply disappear until the summer rolls around again. We have made sure Congress follows through with their commitment to honor the lives of those who came before us” (Lee, Make Juneteenth a National Holiday in 2021). Therein, Opal Lee believes that the backing of a national holiday dedicated to the remembrance of Juneteenth is vital to the future of the United States in achieving equality. In her excerpt for change, Opal Lee further implies that changes in education are the foundation for which equality can be established.
Finally, legislation in the Senate S.4019 and in the House H.R.7232, otherwise called the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, are being reviewed. As the public awaits the results of congressional vote on the passage of the day of June 19th as Juneteenth day, the entirety of the United States waits in anticipation for the change toward more fervent equality of peoples from which American policy on domestic classism and racial structure could serve for the beneficiary of future de facto civil equality.
SOURCES:
Derrick Bryson Taylor, The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/article/juneteenth-day-celebration.html
Henry Louis Gates Jr., Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/what-is-juneteenth/
Opal Lee, Change.org
https://www.change.org/p/united-states-congress-make-juneteenth-a-national-holiday-in-2021?use_react=false
National Archive
https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/blacks-civil-war
Rich Tennant, Erenow.net
https://erenow.net/exams/the-civil-war-for-dummies/30.php
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