Juneteenth: Extending Liberty and Justice To All

Today is Juneteenth, a holiday that not many Americans understood as a holiday possibly less than twenty years ago, but it was instituted just after the Civil War. Juneteenth commemorates the day of June 19, 1865, when slaves in Galveston, Texas, first learned the American Civil War was over and they had received their long awaited liberation. It was a day of celebration, with singing, dancing, and feasting. Although the American Civil War ended in April of 1865, when General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate forces at Appomattox, in Virginia, news of the end of that devastating war took until June to reach Texas.

Juneteenth used to be synonymous with Emancipation Day or Freedom Day

The name of Juneteenth is what is known as a ‘portmanteau’ or a combination of two or more words comprising an entirely new word with a blended meaning of the words involved. A simple example would be the word “smog” which was created by joining smoke and fog. Juneteenth is the portmanteau of June and nineteenth; a single word which signifies a special day in the history of the United States. However, the meaning has been distorted and contorted, as old and new racist perceptions collide without much genuine comprehension surviving. Juneteenth used to be synonymous with Emancipation Day or Freedom Day. However, many contemporary racists want to replace July 4th, or Independence Day with Juneteenth. The driving intent is to further divide Americans and not to unite the people.

Unfortunately, without understanding the history of the holiday, ignorant people, or those with limited or selective awareness, pick sides in alignment with one stance or another. The roots of this divisiveness at the core of this controversy, however, are more emotional--specifically laden with resentment--rather than logical. Ignorance combined with a misguided perception of being wronged do not provide a healthy foundation for healing or repairing genuine injustice.

Genuine justice was dealt by the Civil War in April of 1865, when Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate forces at Appomattox, Virginia. Genuine justice was dealt with to a limited extent on June 18, 1865. The American Civil War devastated the United States. Over 620,000 men and boys died during the Civil War, and the majority of those who died were white men and boys who fought either for or against a Confederacy that would have preferred to retain the institution of slavery and an entrenched and politically powerful white aristocracy, whose structure of power that had existed from before the birth of the U.S. Chronology matters little to those who are riding on the remnants of resentment, or to those who serve an agenda of divisiveness.

U. S. Army General Gordon Granger marched 2,000 Union soldiers into Galveston, Texas to secure the state and oversee procedures for the emancipation of the slaves

Yet, in April of 1865, only days after Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, resentment claimed the life of President Abraham Lincoln, who had taken upon himself the mission of emancipating the slaves. Retribution against the POTUS who had eventually grasped the true purpose of the Civil War as he voiced it in his Gettysburg Address. Many Americans have yet to grasp the purpose of the Civil War, or Lincoln’s value in preserving the Union in such a divisive time. An American president gave his life so that others could obtain their God-given freedom. Despite the coup attempt at the time, the Army of the Republic continued onward to establish the conditions of the victory over the Democrat tyrants of the Deep South.

On June 18, 1865, over two months after this historic event, U. S. Army General Gordon Granger marched 2,000 Union soldiers into Galveston, Texas to secure the state and oversee procedures for the emancipation of the slaves. On June 19, 1865, while standing on the balcony of Galveston’s Ashton Villa, General Granger read the basic contents of “General Order No. 3” that essentially represented the practical fulfillment of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The Army Order represented the force the Union needed to not only to emancipate the slaves, but it also was required to enforce the eventual military police state required to enforce compliance to the laws of the United States government under Reconstruction.

By what force did the slaves free themselves? None. Juneteenth is a celebration of freedom that was an extension of the practical enactment of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and later the Thirteenth Amendment passed by Congress. Union liberators who were willing to fight and give their lives that others, not even of their own race, would be able to finally enjoy the fruits of freedom in this nation. 

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The cost of Liberty is eternal vigilance. Without a genuine desire to preserve Freedom there are no guarantees it will last

Unfortunately, even that sacrifice was not enough. If it were, Rev. Martin Luther KIng, Jr. and his life-risking efforts during the Civil Rights Movement would not have been necessary. Principled leadership and sacrifice are almost always needed to obtain or secure and retain Freedom.

The cost of Liberty is eternal vigilance. Without a genuine desire to preserve Freedom there are no guarantees it will last, and if American Freedom is to be preserved, the effort demands a serious commitment of responsibility to protect the rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution. Without such a sense of sustained responsibility, lawlessness replaces law and order, and the rule of law disintegrates and civil society eventually falls into chaos. When the rule of law no longer matters to the leaders, the law is used to help entrench the lawless. That is when tyranny replaces Freedom. This was how Democrats ruled the Deep South. Now, they are attempting to establish such a system of domination across the entire nation.

Juneteenth can either be a celebration of Freedom from that brand of tyranny, or it can serve as a tool of divisiveness to usher in a new brand of tyranny rooted in Marxist doctrine and funded by Globalist Elitists. It is odd that Americans are not able to discern the difference between the holiday of Juneteenth viewed as a victory of Freedom over tyranny vs. Juneteenth celebrated for the opportunity to propagate and perpetuate the poison of resentment.

Juneteenth emerged as a genuine celebration of Freedom as a result of the eventual defeat of the Confederacy

Juneteenth emerged as a genuine celebration of Freedom as a result of the eventual defeat of the Confederacy, another name for a tyrannical government, which came at great cost of human life. Additionally, due to principled leadership from Abraham Lincoln and the leaders in Congress who were willing to defend the Free Republic.

Today, Democrats use bankrupt educational ploys such as Critical Race Theory or the collective “white guilt” to weaken the moral standards of white people, and this is how they can manipulate public perceptions. It provides a substantial foundation for using Juneteenth as a divisive tool. A true focus on U.S. history in this time should be on the victory over slavery when white as well as black soldiers from the Army of the Republic defeated a Confederate Army that was totally intent on defending the institution of slavery at all costs--even death. Unfortunately, most people focus upon the problems caused by the enslavement of human beings. While Freedom Day deserves a more substantial place in the nation’s history, it should not be a tool for dividing the people. Freedom Day should be a day in which all Americans should celebrate Freedom. It should be a day in which all Americans could reflect once again on the nation’s true origins.

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