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DESCRIPTION:"From Slavery to Freedom" by Dr. John Hope Franklin remains the definitive 
 text to obtain a wholistic broad view of our pending National Juneteenth 
 Holiday, pops I remember and we will make it plain.  \n\nIn the mid 15th 
 century the Roman Catholic Church issued Papal Bulls that were believed to 
 justify the expansion of Pan African enslavement within early Iberian 
 Penisula colonies.\n\nMilitary expeditions captured Pan Africans and 
 military territory under religious decree that provided a legal framework 
 towards the War of Castillian Succession.\n\nCastillian Queen of Spain 
 later hired Italian Maritime Merchant Christopher Columbus near the end of 
 the 15th Century to expand trade and commerce.  The historic symbolic 
 statue in the California State Capitol Rotunda was removed Summer 2020 and 
 soon come the rest of the story.\n\nPerhaps the better known August 1619 
 shipment of military prisoners of war, captured in the Kingdom of 
 Kongo in West Central Africa shares the King James Version in 
 scripture.\n\nDuring the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, 
 Kongolese political elites adopted Christianity sending ambassadors and 
 emissaries to Europe. \n\nKongo’s Christian ruler used diplomatic 
 pressure based on religious status to try and limit the Portuguese slave 
 trade, it did not work well, Genesis 15:12-14 shares an English version of 
 the same journey "From Slavery to Freedom" valued in original British 
 colonies who became independent.\n\nThe close of the US Civil War is the 
 new beginning of our Juneteenth story. \n\nUS Army General Gordon Granger 
 was given the assignment to command the Department of Texas, from the final 
 fallen Confederate Port of Galveston Island, he had no idea that, in 
 establishing the Union Army's Headquarters in Texas, he was also 
 establishing what has become an agreed basis for our National Juneteenth 
 Holiday.\n\nAfter the very global public execution of an unarmed Black man, 
 2020 Memorial Day, our popular annual freedom celebration of Juneteenth has 
 taken on unbelievable global significance. \n\nWhen General Granger assumed 
 command of the Department of Texas, the Confederate capitol in Richmond had 
 fallen; the "Executive" to whom he referred, President Lincoln, was dead; 
 and the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery was well on a path of 
 ratification.\n\nConfederate Troops and Confederate President Jefferson 
 continued on the battlefield refusing to surrender or accept the ending of 
 chattel slavery in the Confederate States of America. \n\nOver 200,000 US 
 Colored Troops had enlisted in the Army and Navy to secure the Union and 
 obtain freedom through blood on the battlefield.\n\nGeneral Robert E. Lee 
 had surrendered in Virginia, April\n1865, the Army of the Trans-Mississippi 
 had held out until late May, and even with its formal surrender on June 2, 
 a number of Rebels in the region continued bushwhacking, plunder and 
 mayhem.\n\nWhen the 7 week campaign throughout Texas was complete, General 
 Granger now famous order No. 3, was enforced and well over 250,000 formerly 
 enslaved Pan Africans had one final King Cotton crop in the field.\n\nOn 
 Texas plantations, "masters" had to decide when and how to announce the 
 news -- or wait for US Colored Troops to arrive enforcing freedom.\n\nOur 
 "hidden figures" are found in the text of "Juneteenth: Emancipation and 
 Memory," and in "Lone Star Pasts: Memory and History in Texas" the National 
 story begins to open up the hidden story few want to recognize or 
 acknowledge.\n\nFormer enslaved captive Susan Merritt recalled in Litwack's 
 book, "You could see lots of niggers hangin' to trees in Sabine bottom 
 right after freedom, 'cause they cotch 'em swimmin' 'cross Sabine River and 
 shoot 'em." \n\nAnother voice, told to Hayes Turner, a former enslave woman 
 named Katie Darling continued working for her mistress another six years 
 (She " 'whip me after the war jist like she did 'fore,' " Darling 
 said).\n\nThe fullness of our National Juneteenth story is all the more 
 remarkable and inspiring when the pre-Civil War and post-Civil War period 
 is considered in context transforming a Nation, June 19, 1865 is our own 
 annual rite, "Juneteenth, celebrating our journey from Slavery to Freedom 
 with the promise of a new beginning, globally.\n\nThere were other 
 available anniversaries dates for celebrating freedom that were considered 
 and were not utilized, including:\n\nSept. 22: the day Lincoln issued his 
 preliminary Emancipation Proclamation Order in 1862\n\nJan. 1: the day 
 President Lincoln signed the Civil War executive order in 1863, for states 
 on rebellion.\n\nJan. 31: the date the 13th Amendment passed Congress in 
 1865, officially abolishing the institution of slavery, unless convicted of 
 a crime.\n\nDec. 6: the day the 13th Amendment was ratified that 
 year\n\nApril 3: the day Richmond, Va., fell\n\nApril 9: the day Lee 
 surrendered to Ulysses Grant at Appomattox, Va.\n\nNo one in the post-Civil 
 War generation could deny that something fundamental had changed as a 
 result of Lincoln's war measure, but enforcing it was a separate matter 
 settled on the battlefields across America.\n\nAmerica's Peculiar 
 Institution and ongoing challenges continue to impact the entire United 
 States of America and our National Juneteenth Holiday will help heal the 
 wounds.\n\nIt is quite possible that Juneteenth would have vanished from 
 the calendar (at least outside of Texas) had it not been for another 
 remarkable turn of events during the same civil rights movement that had 
 exposed many of the country's shortcomings about race relations. The US 
 Civil Rigjts movement suffered a major blow in Memphis, Tennessee.\n\nRev. 
 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been planning a return to the site of his 
 famous "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, this time to lead a Poor 
 People's March, sharing his "current nightmare."  \n\nFollowing his 
 assassination "by committee" was left to try leading a nationwide spiritual 
 effort toward freedom and equality.\n\nIn 1979, Texas became the first 
 state to make Juneteenth an official holiday.  Leading the charge was Rep. 
 Al Edwards of Houston, often referred to as "the father of the Juneteenth 
 holiday," who framed it as a "source of strength" for young people, 
 according to Hayes Turner.\n\nSince then, 47 other states and the District 
 of Columbia have recognized Juneteenth as a state holiday or holiday 
 observance, the US Senate was one vote short of Unanimous Consent to 
 establish a National Juneteenth Holiday earlier this year. \n\n"This is 
 similar to what God instructed Joshua to do as he led the Israelites into 
 the Promised Land," Al Edwards shared in 2007. "A national celebration of 
 Juneteenth, state by state, serves a similar purpose for us. Every year we 
 must remind successive generations that this event triggered a series of 
 events that one by one defines the challenges and responsibilities of 
 successive generations. That's why we need this holiday."\n\nYou can follow 
 Edwards' efforts and others' worldwide at juneteenth.com, founded in 1997 
 by Clifford Robinson of New Orleans. Another organization, the National 
 Juneteenth Observance Foundation, founded and chaired by the Rev. Ronald 
 Meyers, is committed to making Juneteenth a national holiday on a par with 
 Flag and Patriot days. "We may have gotten there in different ways and at 
 different times," Meyers told Time magazine, "but you can't really 
 celebrate freedom in America by just going with the Fourth of July." 
 \n\nJuneteenth is an opportunity to remember our journey towards freedom, 
 to celebrate today, but also to speak out against what remains to be 
 done.\n\nGlobally, Juneteenth is poised to exceed the imagination of our 
 elders and ancestors to light the path for future generations.\n\nThe 
 business conversation and culinary excellence on full display at our 
 Juneteenth Food and Wine Symposium, September 18, 2020, Historic Gold 
 Mining Town of Negro Bar, California will help set the tone for our 
 National Juneteenth Directors and Planners events to spark the imagination 
 to explore the vast global possibilities for the next generations to 
 come.\n https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2020/08/10/18835849.php
SUMMARY:Juneteenth Holiday Education Symposium
LOCATION:Historic Gold Mining Town\nNegro Bar, California \n\nHistoric Folsom 
 District 
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2020/08/10/18835849.php
DTSTART:20200918T183000Z
DTEND:20200918T203000Z
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