Fridays Thoughts "Juneteenth"

Welcome to Breaking Protocol and this special edition of Fridays Thoughts, I am your host Bob Satawake. Today is Juneteenth, a day millions of Americans do not know about primarily because they were never taught about what took place on this historic day in American history. Juneteenth marks a day in America that every child in this country should be taught about in school. This is the day when a Union Army General named Gordon Granger made his way to Galveston, Texas to inform black Americans that they had been freed. 

Most of us were taught that the Emancipation Proclamation signed January 1, 1863 ended slavery in the United States, it didn’t, it took two and half years before slaves in Texas were freed. June 19, 1865, 155 years ago today, that was the day slaves were freed and that is the purpose of celebrating, a day when our country began its’ path toward equality of all Americans.   

I was raised in a small town near Tulsa, Oklahoma and never once were we taught the history of the Greenwood massacre that took place 99 years ago this month, 56 years after the true emancipation of black Americans.  To this day black Americans are still enduring the bonds of slavery as a result of the inequities in our judicial system, housing, employment, health care and many other institutional and systemic racism barriers. I suspect there are those who feel exposing the shame of our historical narrative is comparable to airing one’s dirty laundry for all the neighbors to see but hiding your laundry doesn’t make it any less dirty. 

And speaking of dirty laundry, Donald Trump who has made claims he has done more for black Americans than President Abraham Lincoln had decided to hold a celebration in his honor, otherwise known as a campaign rally, in Tulsa, the site of the Greenwood massacre, one of, if not the most horrific acts of violence against black Americans in our nations history. Yes, the rally was moved and will be held tomorrow, but let there be no mistake, this was only a result of the pleading by Oklahoma state and elected officials. Donald Trump’s only recognition of Juneteenth as of this recording is a tweet praising a racist post by a senior editor at Breitbart News! But I digress, as today is not about Donald Trump

Juneteenth is either a state holiday or ceremonial holiday, a day of observance in 49 of the 50 states of our country and the District of Columbia. The only state that does not recognize Juneteenth is Hawaii.  U.S. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee says, "The potential of having this national holiday opens a whole world of discussion for America, a whole reckoning with racism and the systemic racism that permeates the nation," she has been working to have Juneteenth declared a national holiday for 20 years! Isn’t it time we recognize our past transgressions and celebrate the end of slavery? 

Yet our country honors those who we pretend were heroes, the men who perpetrated slavery, who declared war on our country to retain the right to own black Americans are honored with statues and national holidays and their names mark the entrances to our schools and government institutions. We are not there yet; we face many hurdles and we must continue to pursue justice. 

But for today let’s celebrate and be hopeful. As Gayle King of CBS This Morning indicated, everyone should be celebrating the end of slavery. Despite our labored path on human rights, it’s never too late to do the right thing despite how many transgressions our past may hold. And those are my Fridays Thoughts. 

Thank you for listening to Breaking Protocol with Bob Satawake, please click and subscribe to receive notification of my future podcast and if you have not had the opportunity to read my book Breaking protocol forging a path beyond diplomacy it is available at your favorite online retailer and can be download to your kindle, tablet or smartphone. Take care and many