Juneteenth: In Remembrance of Carl Baker, Steve Booker, and Anthony Freeman

At the end of my last book, a book that had its deep roots in the Mexia
drownings and looked at race in America through the prism of Milwaukee, I
found myself concluding with questions. "If daily life is trying enough," I
wrote, "why, frankly, should blacks have to constantly watch their step? Why
should they constantly be subjected to a different set of bells and whistles
merely because they are black?"

Juneteenth, arguably our true Independence Day, strikes me as being as
appropriate a day as any for us--all of us--to reflect on and fully address
those questions.

BY JONATHAN COLEMAN

(originally from The Texas Observer)
http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Soc/soc.retirement/2006-06/msg02222.html
>>>snip
If you head east out of Waco, past the spot where the Branch Davidian
complex used to be, in less than an hour you will find yourself in the
little town of Mexia, home to some of the finest peaches you could ever hope
to taste and where, 20 years ago this week, on Juneteenth to be precise,
three black teenagers--Carl Baker, Steve Booker, and Anthony Freeman--lost
their lives in the most senseless, tragic way.

All three had been out at Comanche Crossing, on the shore of Lake Mexia,
celebrating the day, June 19th, 1865, when a Union general named Gordon
Granger arrived in Galveston with the news that America's last remaining
slaves, more than 200,000 in all, were no longer in bondage. The
Emancipation Proclamation had been issued nearly two and a half years
earlier. The Civil War had been over for 71 days. But the sweet, resounding
word of freedom had not made its way to Texas until Granger brought it.

With race relations continuing to be our country's most confounding dilemma,
with racial profiling seeming to replace affirmative action as the new
buzzword, and with efforts to seek reparations for slavery still very much
alive, it is more crucial than ever that all Americans become aware of
Juneteenth (as it has come to be called), a day that is marked in many
cities and towns throughout the country by street fairs and parades, by all
manner of dance, food, music, and drink. But in Mexia, where one of the
first Juneteenth celebrations in America was ever held, it will forever be
marked by the night that these three boys died in the custody of three
officers, under circumstances that remain troubling to this day.

They were arrested for possession of marijuana and put into an aluminum
fishing boat, to be transported to the other side of the lake, where the
Limestone County Sheriff's Department had a makeshift precinct. They had
been handcuffed on shore, but the handcuffs were later removed--precisely
when is one of many points still in dispute all these years later. They were
not given life jackets (in direct violation of Texas law) and the boat
itself did not have lights (another violation). The combined weight of the
six individuals far exceeded what the boat could legally carry. Within a few
minutes of leaving the shore, the boat began to take on water and capsized.
According to all who knew them, Booker and Baker could swim, but Freeman
could not. Nonetheless, all three of them drowned, while two of the officers
made it safely to shore. The third officer, who also couldn't swim, clung
onto the boat. Less than a year later, after the venue had been moved three
times, the officers were acquitted of negligent homicide before an all-white
jury in Dallas.

Well done :toast: Happy Juneteenth

:kick: