Austin American Standard, 1989 Report:
Slaves in the North learned they were free when the emancipation proclamation was signed Jan. 1, 1863. Black Texans, however, did not get the news of emancipation until two years later when Gen. Gordon Granger landed in Galveston on June 19, 1865, and delivered the news that ended slavery in the Lone Star State.
Across America, her citizens could have only hoped that Juneteenth would be a moment for national unity. Instead, President Joe Biden used the anniversary “to cast aspersions on political opponents, to present America as a cauldron of racial animus, and to make evidence-free claims that he was active in the civil-rights movement.”
As James Freeman writes in the WSJ, the President was like “a politician jumping in front of a parade, trying to lead it in his preferred direction.”
But all Americans can celebrate Monday’s Juneteenth holiday while appreciating the work of the volunteers far from Washington who created this special day to remember a milestone of U.S. liberty.
What is actually hard is to try to find evidence that Mr. Biden participated in the civil-rights movement, or that he made much if any effort to recognize Juneteenth as a federal holiday during his decades in the Senate.
Perhaps that was just a really busy time of year for the Delaware senator. Mr. Biden did play an important role in making June the official month of aphasia awareness.
Texas was the first state to proclaim Juneteenth a state holiday. The Lone Star State led the way in prompting other states to follow suit.
While celebrating the 150th anniversary of the proclamation that freed the last remaining slaves in the U.S., keep in mind that 43 states, including the District of Columbia, now recognize Juneteenth in some fashion.
The number of Juneteenth events has exploded this year—the sesquicentennial anniversary of the June 19, 1865, proclamation in Galveston that finally freed the last remaining slaves in the United States . . .
Galveston school children waged a letter-writing campaign to try to persuade President Barack Obama to attend that city’s celebrations, writes Mr. Freeman, but then President Obama declined, citing a conflict.
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