If I Had Been Asked

I recently asked friends and acquaintances what their church did or said about Juneteenth. It was a great time to say something as Juneteenth actually occurred on a Sunday, which is the good news, and it also appeared on Father’s Day, the bad news. So, in most instances, in all probability, Father’s Day won out over Juneteenth, or at least so it appears.

While most of my friends did not respond to my query, either because they didn’t see it, didn’t care to respond, or had nothing to add. The range was curious, nothing said at all to an entire worship service devoted to it. That would be my church on the one end and the National Washington Cathedral on the other end. In between were casual mentions, or a few seconds here or there, sometimes tied in with Father’s Day, and sometimes there were actually more time devoted. One I really like was a white pastor talking to a Black youth pastor. The white pastor acknowledged with an apology that he’d only known about Juneteenth for a couple of years. The young Black youth pastor offered grace and answered a few questions about its origins and how his family and others celebrated it. The elder of one church in an opening comments and prayer said several things for several minutes, and then one preaching minister devoted four minutes to it.

I’m curious as to who knows about Juneteenth and who doesn’t. A recent Gallup poll shows that the knowledge about it among American citizens has gone up since 2021. That is a good thing.

I suspect that largely white churches, mirroring white American citizens, will not know about it, and maybe won’t even think about it. I also suspect that muti-racial churches will know about it and will do something about it, or say something about it, in a way to honor the day and its meaning. I could be terribly wrong.

Personally, I have known about Juneteenth since the days of my adolescence here in Texas. I don’t know exactly when, but I remember knowing about it for a long time. Juneteenth became a Texas holiday in 1979 and now a national holiday as of 2021 when President Biden signed it into law and it immediately became a national holiday.

If I had been asked to say a few words at my church, what would I have said. I’ve thought long and hard about it and it would read like this:

“Today I am honored to say a few words on behalf of our country’s latest national holiday. It is a day unlike any other as its symbolism and meaning run deep, first for our African American citizens and hopefully now for all citizens. I take these few moments solemnly as my words will not come close to providing the deeper meaning and texture of this beautiful day.

On January 1, 1863, Lincoln signed into law the Emancipation Proclamation. We think it was bigger than it was. Perhaps it was more symbolical, but yet it freed some 500,000 of 3.9 million enslaved Africans, most of whom were living in the Confederate states. Unless Union soldiers were there, they remained enslaved. General Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. The war was over, the enslaved were free, and some did take their freedom.

On June 19, 1865, two and a half months later, General Granger and some 6,000 troops, many of whom were Black, landed at Galveston and made the declaration that the enslaved were free, but they were encouraged to stay and work for wages. Some did and many left immediately to seek their families. The 13^th amendment was signed into law on December 6, 1865 which outlawed slavery except for prescribed circumstances.

Who of us can imagine what it was like to be enslaved to an enslaver on a large plantation or on a small plantation, with brutal means of keeping the enslaved Africans in check or less brutal ways of controlling them? Either way, who can imagine being owned as property? Who of us can imagine knowing that the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed, but the enslavers kept it quiet?  Then, who can grasp enslavement in Texas, having been quickly moved from another southern state into Texas, and the enslavers wanting at least one more harvest season and money from their labors. Who can truly grasp? Perhaps many knew about the end of the war and the enslaved now going free. It would be hard to keep that quiet, even as far away as Texas.

Who can grasp the depth of the joys of freedom? Waking up a free person must have been beyond belief. Living the day as a free person versus living a day as an owned person must have gone beyond comprehension.

Then, who can grasp living under the Black Codes, share cropping, Jim Crow South, and even the separate but unequal school system and other things?

So, yes, Juneteenth set the captives free. The enslaved ones were now free from the shackles of bondage and the brutal hand of men and women enslavers.

That was a day of celebration. Juneteenth has been celebrated from June 19, 1865 to this very day with all of its rich symbolism and meaning.

You and me, as white Americans, perhaps even some of us falling into that category of “I don’t really know much about it,” can now celebrate it. We celebrate it because people we care about are celebrating it.

Now, we may be invited to attend community or family gatherings with food and music and games and conversation. Or, maybe we won’t be. We can celebrate and honor our friends by learning about all things from Africa, to the Middle Passage, to the slave block, to enslavement on some farm, to the second Middle Passage, to having our families split and torn asunder in a dozen different directions. We can read and listen to the stories of people finding their roots or buying a farm where their ancestors were once enslaved or learning more about the plight of the Black farmer here in America. We can learn more about the Black Tax, red lining and its effects, health disparities, and much more. We can explore Black contributions to our country, the contributions that Black music has made, Black artists, Black theology and James Cone and others, and more. 

We can learn and by learning, we can celebrate. We can celebrate and deeply respect the celebrations of liberty and freedom for those whose ancestors knew not freedom or came to know freedom on June 19, 1865.

America has come a long way, and in this grand experiment called democracy, we have a long way to go in order to make things truly equal for all of God’s children. May we continue what others have started and build a beautiful USA for all of us.”

Those are my words, friends. What would you say?