“If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that…My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union…”
—5th US President Abe Lincoln
“A lot of barriers still exist…Our power, our rights and even our planet are on the ballot this year,.”
—Former US President Barack Obama
NATION: Today, the entirety ofthe United States is celebrating Juneteenth , the National holiday that commemorates the end of the American Civil War. The 1860s Civil War was the most pivotal of wars fought in America. Prior to the war, it was at the behest of one of the nation’s first liberated women, Sojourner Truth who was joined by one of the America’s most stalwart Presidents, Abraham Lincoln whose stand taken against slavery marked the beginning of a United States in the, then, 13 contiguous states of America.
“Today, on Juneteenth, we celebrate all that is possible when we March together. May we all recommit to redeeming the very soul of America choosing love over hate, unity over division and progress over retreat.”
—US President Joe Biden
“The question of whether the world will exist half slave and half free, and what contribution we in the United States can make to maintain the world in a state of freedom. That is the issue before the American people…”
— Former US President John F Kennedy
By Michelle Crawford-Sapenter
“This Juneteenth, we will hold a National Day of Action on voting. I call on all the leaders here to join in helping Americans getting registered to vote because while Juneteenth is a day of celebration it is , also, a day of dedication. A day to rededicate ourselves to the ongoing and unfinished work of our American experience. A day to defend our freedoms, renew our history and continue to fight for the promise of American.”—US Vice President, Kamala Harris
“To the survivors, to the wives and family members, the children and the grandchildren, I say what you know: No power on Earth can give you back the lives lost, the pain suffered, the years of internal torment and anguish. What was done cannot be undone. But we can end the silence. We can stop turning our heads away. We can look at you in the eye and finally say on behalf of the American people, what the United States government did was shameful, and I am sorry.”— Former US President, William “Bill “ Clinton
Today, as a result of the human dignity and a seemingly natural inclination toward diplomacy, Sojourner Truth petitioned US President, Abe Lincoln during a discussion brought by her to the President in regard to the abhorrent and fulsome state of slavery in the nation. Lincoln, as a person, was a man of astonishing human ethics having the tenacity of piercing moral fiber. President Abe Lincoln was a leader who possessed the mettle that established the substance of US Presidency as he stood against the era’s prolific atrocities as the 5th United States President.
In the quest to follow the stellar prohibitions and inalienable human rights that are written into the US Constitution Lincoln and Truth concurred in a plan to end the state of atrocious inhumanity; slavery.—
and its resounding impact that history must note that in its subsequent effects, levied the start of a new nation—the United States.
In the last 160 years ofthe post Civil War, that which was fought to unite the lower southern states and establish their submission to the upper northern regions of America, the nation had quaked with race hate and protests that demonstrated disdain for ending slavery— however expressed, especially, by some in white sheets, baring the Swastika.
In the post slavery era, freed Americans evolved through the affects of local and regional violations, violence, economic inequity and social inequality.
American blacks evolved from colored to negro and to that which opposed the burgeoning white oppression to stand as black in every area of the free U.S. society. The new black community gained control and took the reins of black owned economic equity while demanding social equality.
By 1964 and the protest of a nation ‘s utter disregard for the state of hate , not to mention offenses, being put upon blacks , a new era was woven into the fabric of US society having the marches of John R Lewis
the lectures of Malcom X, and the kegislation drawn up following the protests of Dr Martin Luther King would inspire the statutes that, now, exist as the substance of Civil Rights law and the anti discrimination legislation adapted by Dr King and signed by a 2nd most pivotal US President, Lyndon B Johnson.
Now, some 60 years unto today, the celebration of Juneteenth as a National Holiday, is a celebration of lives that were traded off of slaveships , lives that with bent knees and bowed heads were lifted by the light of hope and trust in God that poured into their minds, faith and into their hearts, courage to stand.
It is by their giving that theirs are the shoulders upon which the United States stand as one nation. It is by their giving that the black community stands better, not for slavery, not at all, but for those who lived courageously, having been abducted from their home lands and though many died because of slavery, we live as a testament to freedom, justice and our own established equality.
And if, by only God, we might render their souls a greater rest for knowing; “it was because of you that we can say ‘ Thank you. We have made it!’ “ We have withstood the hate, hurt and harm that you suffered for us. “
It is for this that we lift our heads, we stride with purpose, we celebrate Juneteenth, in this 162nd year of our Lord.
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