Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 2 June 2005 — Page 2

Page 2 • The Muncie Times • June 2, 2005

EDITOBIAL

Juneteenth embraces all, regardless or race, color, creed

On June 19, African Americans across the country will be celebrating Juneteenth. This awkward, tonguetwister name is a reminder of the sad history of this country. After President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which effectively ended slavery within the borders of the new United States of America. It took a while before slavery was finally ended. In Texas, it would take 2 1/2 years before slave owners officially received

the news that slavery was officially dead. Many reasons have been advanced for this insufferable delay. They have ranged from the death of a messenger, who was supposed to bring the joyful news, to awaiting the arrival of a powerful enough Union military regiment to enforce the order and rumors that some Union officers conspired with the slave masters so they could receive one more free harvest from the hands of the African Americans, before they were finally set free.

Whatever the ostensible reasons for this delay, it is shameful that a people that had already suffered so much by being uprooted from their roots on the African continent and inhumanely transported, while shackled and packed like sardines, during the Middle Passage from Africa to the New World, had to endure more hardships even after they had been officially freed by Lincoln. Yet such was the plight of the people of African descent who had been transformed into slaves,

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MUNCIE TIMES STAFF

Publisher Bea Moten-Foster Editor John Lambkun Advertising Bea Moten-Foster Layout/Typesetting Adrian Barrett Contributors: T.S. Kumbula, Maurice EL-Taylor, Nicole Johnson, Hurley C. Goodall, Bernice Powell Jackson, and Marc H. Morial Administrative Assistant Barbara Perry

The Muncie Times is published twice monthly at 1304 N. Broadway, Muncie, IN 47303. It covers the communities of Anderson, Marion, New Castle, Richmond, and Muncie. All editorial correspondence should be addressed to: The Editor, The Muncie Times, 1304 N. Broadway, Muncie, IN 47303. Telephone (765) 741-0037. Fax (765) 741-0040.

to be bought, sold and worked as if they were beasts of burden. To top it off, after they were supposed to have been freed, they continued to be enslaved. No one seemed to care, until that June 19, hence the Juneteenth moniker, when the released was made official—2 1/2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. When the Executive Order freeing the slaves was finally issued in Texas, many of them immediately took off from the plantation, escaping the inhuman control of the slave masters. They headed North and they also went to neighboring states, in search of friends and relatives. The long nightmare was finally over. But its consequences were not. After what had happened, it does not take a rocket scientist to understand or explain why Juneteenth is important in the annals of the African American experience. It marks another glacial milestone in our struggle to regain the human and civil liberties that had been stolen from us. It represents a benchmark in that struggle. That is why Juneteenth, although its circumstances were peculiar to Texas has a national following and resonates so well with African

Americans and other groups that support human rights and civil liberties for all people, regardless of race, color, gender, ethnicity or religious creed. That time apparently has not arrived. So this year, we shall observe Juneteenth^ again. Muncie has joining a spreading national community that attaches significance to Juneteenth and thinks it should be celebrated nationally and should be a candidate for a national holiday. We need to be able to look at the racism and racial discrimination in this country, if we are ever going to reach a point where can finally overcome prejudices embedded in race, ethnicity, creed, gender and other phobias based on unwillingness to accept those of God’s children who are different from us. In that spirit, Juneteenth should be a celebration that requires the participation of all people, regardless of gender, race or ethnicity, because it recognizes our common humanity, instead of focusing on our differences. It is in that spirit of racial and cultural reconciliation that Juneteenth comes to Muncie, a city in transition as it looks at its past and tries to hope for a better and more promising future.