Better late than never for Juneteenth
Juneteenth Day commemorates June 19th, 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and ended two and a half years of white resistance to President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation by issuing a general order that said:
''The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves'' and that the new connection between former masters and slaves would now become one between ''employer and hired labor.''
It has been a state holiday in Texas for the last quarter-century and some other states in both the North and South observe the day. President Bush, the former governor of Texas, issued a White House greeting for the day. In Boston, activists and politicians are trying to get Governor Romney's attention for a state holiday.
Read entire article at Boston Globe
''The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves'' and that the new connection between former masters and slaves would now become one between ''employer and hired labor.''
It has been a state holiday in Texas for the last quarter-century and some other states in both the North and South observe the day. President Bush, the former governor of Texas, issued a White House greeting for the day. In Boston, activists and politicians are trying to get Governor Romney's attention for a state holiday.