Stories and Photos by Danielle Wallingsford Kirkland
One hundred and fifty-eight years ago, on June 19, the last enslaved African Americans were freed in the United States when Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, along with Union troops, traveled to Galveston, Texas, and brought word of the Emancipation Proclamation. Dozens of citizens gathered in Scottsboro Monday to commemorate the anniversary of that historical day, which is known as Juneteenth and is now observed as a federal holiday.
The celebration began with a freedom walk, where marchers traveled together, many waving the official Juneteenth flag, down Willow Street from the Scottsboro Boys Museum to the town square at the Jackson County Courthouse.
Loretta Tolliver, a member of the Scottsboro Boys Museum board since 2010, said enslaved people in Texas did not know they were free for two years following the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and Juneteenth symbolizes that day of freedom.
“I think it’s very significant that our country has decided to recognize Juneteenth as a federal holiday,” Tolliver said. “It is as important to many of us as the Fourth of July. It’s Independence Day for those that did not get the message that they were free for two and half years, and continued to live under that oppression. It’s a celebration that has gone on for many years, but the fact that it is now a federal holiday is something to be celebrated.”
Dr. Thomas Reidy, Scottsboro Boys Museum executive director, spoke to the crowd that gathered at the courthouse, saying Juneteenth, as a day of celebration, fascinates him.
Reidy, who received his PhD in History from the University of Alabama and teaches at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, read the official Juneteenth proclamation that was given by Granger so many years ago, which states “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 the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”
Reidy explained that though the slaves were technically freed, their lives were still very much entwined with the past.
“You’re free, but you have to stay working the same work you’re doing, and instead of being called an enslaved person we are going to call you a laborer,” Reidy explained. “But, you’re probably not going to get paid, and if you try to leave we will probably hunt you down. That’s really what happened.”
Reidy went on to say that June 19 is symbolically important because the Juneteenth proclamation meant that slavery was illegal in the entire United States territory.
“The quality has come in fits and starts,” Reidy said. “It comes two steps forward and one step back. That has been the history of this country. It’s a sad history in some ways, and a glorious history in other ways because there are heroes as well as villains in this story.”
Reidy said it is important to remember events like Juneteenth.
“I think it’s important to study these types of moments in history, and we continue to advocate for schools studying these types of moments in history even though they can be difficult, because it teaches us humility,” Reidy explained. “A lot of people say we study history so we don’t repeat our mistakes, well that’s wrong. We repeat mistakes all the time, but we can look at our past and say maybe we don’t know everything right now. Maybe we shouldn’t be so one hundred percent sure on our views, be it political, economic, whatever. Maybe we should be open a little bit more with each other, and have more discussion … Studying history, we learn about our own humanity. We learn to be humble, and we learn to be better citizens.”
Ryan Johnson, lead pastor at Agape Baptist Church, also spoke about the importance of remembering the past and observing Juneteenth as a day of freedom.
“This holiday is a memory of the past. We celebrate the events of Juneteenth in the past, to bring it into the present,” Johnson said. “ Someone once said ‘That which we do not intentionally remember, we unintentionally forget.’ Therefore, we need to remember this day, and the way it shapes our culture here in Scottsboro.”
Johnson told the crowd he teaches his kids that though we may be prone to repeat the mistakes of the past, we can truly learn from the past to make the future better.
“We will not march just this day, but we will march in the light of the truth into a future where we celebrate diversity, where we love one another in unity, and where we recognize that we are all one blood,” Johnson said.
State Representative Anthony Daniels, of Huntsville, was the event’s keynote speaker. Daniels, Alabama’s first African American minority leader, as well as the youngest, said the march from the museum to the courthouse was not only a celebration of freedom, but also represents the ongoing need for persistence and, where necessary, resistance.
Daniels explained that persisting and resisting means to push forward in the face of uncertainty and the unknown.
As an example, Daniels spoke about his grandparents who were born on a plantation and lived the majority of their lives as sharecroppers on that same plantation.
Though they had very little in the way of a formal education, Daniels said his grandparents had a vision that even though their nine children had also been born on that plantation, they would not be bound to the life of a sharecropper.
“It wasn’t until 1978, four years before I was born, that my grandparents were able to move off this planation as sharecroppers and into a nearby community,” Daniels said. “My grandparents had a different vision for (my mother’s) life. A vision of prosperity, seeing her get married one day, having a decent job … they fought for better. They didn’t know what the future would hold, but they persisted.”
Daniels said that he is where he is today because of their persistence.
“My presence here today is unlikely. I am one generation removed from being born onto a plantation in the land of Governor Wallace and the home of Jim Crowe,” Daniels said. “I, and so many more standing before me, have endured similar stories. But, what we have been able to do is use those stories to make us stronger.”
Daniels said that as people take time to celebrate Juneteenth, they must do more than rejoice and reflect on shared vales.
“We can and should remember the past and celebrate our progress,” he said. “But together we are called to keep pushing for better. Now more than ever we must use the promise of Juneteenth to strengthen our communities so they persist and resist.”
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