Juneteenth
Juneteenth is a celebration of the end of slavery in the USA.
On June 19, 1865 Major General Gordon Granger announced to the slaves of Texas that they were free per Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.[1]
While it is a good holiday that should be celebrated, it represents a hollow victory as many places and States in the former CSA and the USA still practiced slavery since Lincoln did not free their slaves in his proclamation.
He said,
“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free...”[2]
Slavery was legal in the USA and the parts of the CSA under US control prior to Jan 1, 1863 until December of 1865 with the 13th Amendment- 6 months after Juneteenth and the last Confederate general surrendered.
The 13th Amendment actually allows for slavery if someone commits a crime. It reads,
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
Many former slaves and their decedents were enslaved for the crime of exercising their rights as defined in the Bill of Rights under the Constitution.
For example,[3] common sense gun control was used in States that wished to remain as slave States. Hence the 2nd Amendment reads,
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
In 1868 the 14th Amendment was added to the Constitution to specifically protect the rights of former slaves from their State governments. It reads,
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
It was added to ensure freemen’s rights were protected by a jury of their peers so that freemen’s rights could not simply be legislated away.
Unfortunately, even the Juneteenth of the year 2020 is not a complete celebration because the State and Federal governments use the 13th Amendment to enslave people in violation of the Bill of Rights and 14th Amendment.
Because the government breaks the law, the USA has the world’s largest prison population.[4][5]
We should celebrate the end of slavery, but it is a hollow victory until the 14th Amendment is enforced.
[1] https://www.juneteenth.com/history.htm
[2]https://www.nps.gov/museum/tmc/Antietam/Lesson3/The%20Emancipation%20Proclamation%20text%20copy.pdf
[3] http://davekopel.org/2A/Mags/dark-secret-of-jim-crow.html