Feeds‘Juneteenth’ celebrates freedom
As we celebrated Juneteenth, commemorating the day in 1865 that slaves in Galveston, Texas learned that slavery had been abolished, the U.S. Senate recently passed a resolution formally apologizing for slavery and racial segregation.
Juneteenth, observed on June 19, is intended to be a celebration of the freedom found following the Emancipation Proclamation and to be an annual reminder of the tragedy of human slavery that pervaded our nation for so long. By helping us remember this terrible episode in our nation’s history, the hope is that Juneteenth can enlighten our understanding of ongoing challenges our society faces.
A number of Michigan residents played prominent national roles in the abolition and civil rights movements that Juneteenth helps commemorate. For instance, Sojourner Truth, the anti-slavery crusader, lived on the west side of the state where, a decade ago, we dedicated the Sojourner Truth memorial Monument in Battle Creek in her honor.
Rosa Parks, whose resistance to segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, helped launch the civil rights movement, lived in Detroit. We remembered and honored her life when she passed away less than four years ago.
These women’s fight for justice is a model of what make Juneteenth a day filled with hope of a better tomorrow.
The apology resolution passed by the Senate this month honors the memory of all those who have fought to help our nation overcome the blights of slavery and segregation. The resolution describes some of the gravest injustices of slavery and the Jim Crow era; how the system of forced labor persisted for 246 years, how it tore families apart, and how brutal acts of violence were perpetrated against slaves with absolutely no redress.
The injustices continued well after the 13th Amendment to the Constitution ended slavery in our nation. Jim Crow laws disenfranchised former slaves and subjugated them as second-class citizens.
In 2005, the Senate took an important step toward recognizing these past transgressions by passing a resolution formally apologizing for one of the most abhorrent legacies of historic racial inequalities in our nation: lynchings. From 1880 to as recently as the 1960s, an estimated 5,000 Americans, predominately African American, were killed by public hangings, burnings and mutilations. Criminal charges were seldom pursued let alone successfully prosecuted.
We passed the lynching apology in an attempt to acknowledge the Senate’s past failure to address the prevalence of such a despicable act and to allow for some national healing. It is my hope that the recently passed slavery apology can serve a similar purpose.
The resolution includes the following words: “It is important for the people of the United States, who legally recognized slavery through the Constitution and the laws of the United States, to make a formal apology for slavery and its successor, Jim Crow, so they can move forward and seek reconciliation, justice and harmony for all people of the United States.”
The apology is long past due, and its passage, in time for Juneteenth, is an appropriate response to this inhumane chapter in our nation’s history.
Carl Levin is the senior U.S. senator from Michigan.
