Post by Admin on Jun 18, 2023 22:01:57 GMT
For Many Black People Behind Bars, Juneteenth Comes With Joy and Grief
The day serves as a reminder that while chattel slavery was abolished, a new form continues in the U.S. prison system.
By Antoine Davis & Darrell Jackson , WAGINGNONVIOLENCE
PublishedJune 18, 2023
truthout.org/articles/for-many-black-people-behind-bars-juneteenth-comes-with-joy-and-grief/
Juneteenth is a bittersweet day for us — and all Black people in prison holding onto the promise of freedom.
Let’s start with history. The Emancipation Proclamation — issued by Abraham Lincoln on Sept. 22, 1862, during the American Civil War — declared that all slaves in the Confederacy would be “forever free.” Unfortunately, that freedom didn’t extend to the four slaveholding states not in rebellion against the Union, and the proclamation was of course ignored by the Confederate states in rebellion. For the roughly 4 million people enslaved, Lincoln’s declaration was symbolic; only after the Civil War ended was the proclamation enforced.
But even the end of the fighting in April 1865 didn’t immediately end slavery everywhere. As the Union Army took control of more Confederate territory during the war, Texas became a safe haven for slaveholders. Finally, on June 19, Union Gen. Gordon Granger rode into Galveston and issued General Order No. 3, announcing freedom for those enslaved. There were about 250,000 slaves in Texas when it became the last state to release African American bodies from the cruelest institution known to American history. By the end of that year, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, mostly (more on that later).
The day serves as a reminder that while chattel slavery was abolished, a new form continues in the U.S. prison system.
By Antoine Davis & Darrell Jackson , WAGINGNONVIOLENCE
PublishedJune 18, 2023
truthout.org/articles/for-many-black-people-behind-bars-juneteenth-comes-with-joy-and-grief/
Juneteenth is a bittersweet day for us — and all Black people in prison holding onto the promise of freedom.
Let’s start with history. The Emancipation Proclamation — issued by Abraham Lincoln on Sept. 22, 1862, during the American Civil War — declared that all slaves in the Confederacy would be “forever free.” Unfortunately, that freedom didn’t extend to the four slaveholding states not in rebellion against the Union, and the proclamation was of course ignored by the Confederate states in rebellion. For the roughly 4 million people enslaved, Lincoln’s declaration was symbolic; only after the Civil War ended was the proclamation enforced.
But even the end of the fighting in April 1865 didn’t immediately end slavery everywhere. As the Union Army took control of more Confederate territory during the war, Texas became a safe haven for slaveholders. Finally, on June 19, Union Gen. Gordon Granger rode into Galveston and issued General Order No. 3, announcing freedom for those enslaved. There were about 250,000 slaves in Texas when it became the last state to release African American bodies from the cruelest institution known to American history. By the end of that year, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, mostly (more on that later).