Juneteenth becomes an official holiday. Freedom and Emancipation.

We now honor the day freedom was announced in Galveston, Texas, with the words by President Lincoln: “absolute equality.” Free at last.

The civil war had begun with President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation to provide liberty for all persons in the United States. Signed in January 1863, followed the most horrific of wars, pitting states against states, sons against fathers, killing millions of Americans before it was declared over in May of 1865.

In December of 1865, the 13^th amendment was ratified by the states, assuring that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist in our United States.

Celebrate in your way but celebrate this momentous advent in the history of our great nation. Yes, we have flaws, but we will overcome them, just as Martin Luther King said:

“With this faith, we will be able to speed up the day when all of God’s children all over this nation – black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old negro spiritual, “Free at Last, Free at Last, Thank God Almighty, We Are Free At Last.”

“Juneteenth is a day for recognizing the greatness of America: That, though flawed, America was built on humanity’s highest ideals and endowed with a constitutional framework that allowed it to right its wrongs throughout history,” according to  Kay C. James, president of the Heritage Foundation.  “…we do not need to destroy the very structures of this nation, the things that make us great. That while there were issues or problems in our history, look at how we overcame and are overcoming them.”

July 4th remains our National Holiday of Independence. Juneteenth celebrates the day of freedom and emancipation.