It has been my experience to chant with millennials, the ones I raised, and others about Juneteenth and I was surprised to see that they had problems with the facts about even more recent history such as the Civil Rights movement. Martin Luther Kings name came up a lot but when it came to an understanding of all the lives lost during the civil rights movement in this country many had no ideas of what it has cost in lives to be able to walk into a voting booth and cast a ballot. And for the African American young, and old, registered to vote, seldom is the African American voter turnout 100%, but that's another post.
Pastor Thrower said that the people who started the Juneteenth Celebration used to go from community to community with the Juneteenth Celebration. Even though the celebration started in June (June 19) because it was a traveling celebration there would be a Juneteenth celebration in June, July, August, September or whenever after the initial start in June.
And to be honest, if I had lived back then I would not have been opposed to traveling, preferably up north, and celebrating Juneteenth in every town along the way, but nowadays most communities are lucky to be able to have a single Juneteenth celebration, once a year. How do you feel about the idea to celebrate Juneteenth every month? I would much rather see an approved educational curriculum that made Juneteenth a solid part of a history textbook used in school classrooms so that everyone will understand and hopefully appreciate what the meaning of the end of slavery and the beginning of the oldest African American celebration in the U.S. meant to our American African ancestors.
So I appreciate Pastor Thrower for speaking out loud about our ancestors who did celebrate Juneteenth once a month. That might be one way to make sure the history and significance of Juneteenth are realized by this entire nation. I think that Pastor Thrower is well-deserving of the Humanitarian Award she was given for helping her community there in Ocilla, Georgia and for her organizing the local Juneteenth celebration there too. I have participated in organizing a Juneteenth even a time or two over the years, but I have to be honest, currently, I can not see having a Juneteenth celebration every month, not with all the organization that is required to get the city, and the local community all on the same page come Juneteenth day.
Luckily for me, most of my Juneteenth organization tasks were from when I worked at Stanford University, not quite a city but for sure a big community. The point is millennials and everyone else still not aware of the significance of what the Juneteenth Day Celebration means to African Americans and the descendants of the abolitionist that helped bring about the end of slavery in this country needs to be learned and passed down to the generations that come after us. One of the reasons we understand what freedom with regard to this nation is, and still celebrate the 4th of July, is because of that battle for independence cut deep into the fabric of America. Just like southerners caught in the north when the Civil War broke out there was Loyalist who felt they were stuck on the wrong side of the War of Independence and the fight to be free of British rule.
The slaves in this country fought not only in America's war for independence, but they fought just as hard in the Civil War to be free, and the day they received that freedom, Juneteenth, was just as important to our slave ancestors as the 4th of July, only much more personal. So I say if we don't celebrate Juneteenth once a month I'm grateful for the annual Juneteenth celebrations that continue to educate and entertain us all.
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