I lived in Houston for 16+ years and heard about this celebration yearly, but never heard your accounting.

Keep happy and keep building and keep the faith. This too shall pass.

Thank YOU.💖
I appreciate Your Goood thoughts.

It is different so I will leave it up. You will have my thoughts and good vibes when you walk tomorrow, furtheradu.

The details are SO important.
Thank YOU & BLESS YOU! 💖

It will sink like a stone, sad that.

I am thankFULL You shared it! Any one who reads it will be amazed & enLightened.
Your Passion is a beauti FULL thing.
Sister Izola embodied PASSION.
YOU have it, too.💖

...in the early months of 1865, Texas newspapers still contained advertisements of slaves for sale as Texans went about their slave-holding business as usual openly defying compliance with the proclamation. Some Texas slaves reported being in bondage as much as six years after emancipation, and after Juneteenth, blacks were murdered, lynched, and harassed by whites.
“The war may not have brought a great deal of bloodshed to Texas,” notes historian Elizabeth Hayes Turner, “but the peace certainly did.”


Slave “patrols” of whites scoured the countryside for runaway blacks, who were beaten and sometimes killed. The same held true for sympathizing whites. The fear and uncertainty about emancipated slaves was evidenced in stories appearing in the Galveston newspaper, wondering about the white citizens' plight, economically and socially, under “a government in which we have now no voice.” Another piece, in the Galveston Tri-Weekly News, on June 21: “This attempt to overthrow an institution that has become a part of our social system and which our entire population has believed essential to the welfare of both races, led to the war ... and all we can do in our present entire dependence on the clemency of our conquerors, is to repeat to them what we have been urging for so many years ... that the attempt to set the negro free from all restraint and make him politically the equal of the white man, will be most disastrous to the whole country and absolutely ruinous to the South.”
That was the mood that greeted Gen. Granger and his troops, who met no resistance at Galveston, two and a half months after Lee's surrender and three weeks after Gen. E. Kirby Smith had surrendered the last regular Texas Confederate soldiers at Galveston Island. Granger was sent to command the Department of Texas and among his first duties was announcing General Order No. 3:

“The people 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 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 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.”

Granger set up a provisional government as some of his troops continued throughout South and East Texas enforcing the “official” mandate of freedom.
And yet … Juneteenth is now a celebration.
In 1979, Gov. Bill Clements signed a bill making June 19 “Emancipation Day in Texas,'” a legal holiday.

Emancipation for Blacks in Texas, for former slaves throughout the Union, no matter how awkward its first steps, would defy even the most dire predictions for what was to become of a race of people suddenly given the ability to decide their own direction and overcome such notions as this one: “The extinction of slavery is simply the extinction of the Negro race.”

Much More: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/6/18/1670962/-Juneteenth-and-the-memorial-to-black-history-in-Texas

So many steps forward and so many steps back. We have a cruel history that keeps repeating itself.

Thanks SO much for sharing this!
YOU are sure lifting my Heart, after a rough, sorry week..
I will Walk tomorrow, & carry Your thoughts,
& I *WILL* get my Praise on.
Thank YOU.💖

year on the eve of Juneteenth:
"For Immediate Release
June 19, 2016

Statement by the President on the Observance of Juneteenth

Just outside the Oval Office hangs a painting depicting the night of December 31, 1862. In it, African-American men, women, and children crowd around a single pocket watch, waiting for the clock to strike midnight and the Emancipation Proclamation to take effect. As the slaves huddle anxiously in the dimly lit room, we can sense how even two more minutes seems like an eternity to wait for one’s freedom. But the slaves of Galveston, Texas, had to wait more than two years after Lincoln’s decree and two months after Appomattox to receive word that they were free at last.

Today we commemorate the anniversary of that delayed but welcome news. Decades of collective action would follow as equality and justice for African-Americans advanced slowly, frustratingly, gradually, on our nation’s journey toward a more perfect union. On this Juneteenth, we remember that struggle as we reflect on how far we’ve come as a country. The slaves of Galveston knew their freedom was only a first step, just as the bloodied foot soldiers who crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge 100 years later knew they had to keep marching.

Juneteenth is a time to recommit ourselves to the work that remains undone. We remember that even in the darkest hours, there is cause to hope for tomorrow’s light. Today, no matter our race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation, we recommit ourselves to working to free modern-day slaves around the world and to honoring in our own time the efforts of those who fought so hard to steer our country truer to our highest ideals."









<<<back

I am weeping & just THANK YOU. 💖

& THANK YOU, PRESIDENT OBAMA!
WE LOVE YOU.

justice, and healing of our broken world.

YOU are an

& sing for me..
"O, Happy Day..O HAPPY DAY.."
PEACE
FREEDOM
JUSTICE
..& HEALING.

Thank YOU 💖

Thank YOU.💖
WE sang this yesterday, at Sister Izola's
"Home Going" Service..


Thank YOU!

You BLESS the World. 💖🌎💖
Yes, You do!

I will be carrying the goood vibes of YOU, & other DUers with me.
There will be tears..
& LOVE & JOY.

We will remember where we came from.
We WILL create a better World.
BELIEVE IT.💖

Haven't been there in a long while.

I'll go find you.

By the Way, event will probably be on the teevee machine, channels 2, 11, 13, 26 & 39, Houston area.
I'm not techy enough to post links, but maybe the gooogle can help.
Thank You, Sweeetness 💖!

No matter what....a triumph for all humanity.

O happy day..
O HAPPY DAY..!

Y'all sure are lifting my Spirit.
Thank YOU.

It has been very hot, hope the heat isn't too bad.

& then we crowd into that precious Sanctuary, & *SING* & *DANCE* & SWEAT! & then there's lots of sweaty, LOVING hugs!
Awww.. You all have cheered me up, immensely.

Sister Izola *WILL BE* in the House.💖 **

** She played the pipe organ, at least once a month.. it's one of 2 in all the World, the other one is in the Smithsonian.

So, YEAH! It will be HOT.
In more Ways than one!

While reading a brief history on the date I asked myself why we don't celebrate any of these important dates nationally.
(September 22, 1862
January 1, 1863
June 19, 1865)

Sadly, I already know the answer.


Warmth & Light be with you tomorrow and every other day.

NO shame..
This is "hidden history",You have to dig for it..but it's SO worth the effort.
Thank YOU for caring, & for Your BLESSING.

I appreciate Your kind thoughts, so much.

RIP~Izola Collins

Sister Izola was an amazing Musician..she performed at the Apollo, way back when.

There is some MIGHTY Music happening in Heaven, now.
She WILL be in the House💖, Juneteenth.

Cha!

to Sister Izola, further!

Juneteenth Blessings on You, & on us ALL.

in the AA group. Please check it out. I would like to link to it here, but I don't know how
Thank YOU ALL💖, for Your kind thoughts, Prayers, & goood vibes.
I will take pics of Juneteenth on my magic phone, but not sure I can post them, cuz...You know Imma da.

But Houston teevee will likely cover it or livestream? Channels 2,11,13,26,39.
Thanks, Y'all 💖 for the sweeet vibes.

May your walk and fellowship of praise, music, dancing be Divinely filled.
Choicest blessings for you and yours, Sister in Humanity.
Love, sprink 💓

I appreciate Your kind words & Blessings.