Juneteenth and Modern-Day Slavery

Juneteenth should be a reminder to never see any group of humans as non-persons. It never works out well for the ones victimized by such evil arrogance. This holiday commemorates the eventual announcement to slaves in Texas, on June 19th 1865, that President Abraham Lincoln had set them free. The Emancipation Proclamation was issued over two years prior on January 1st, 1863. Isn’t this how truth works sometimes? It has to get over so many obstacles to finally be heard and bring the freedom that is its very nature.

Although limited in scope, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation set slaves free in states that had seceded from the Union. Many don’t realize Lincoln had issued an emancipation decree that set slaves in our nation’s capital free nearly eight months earlier. On April 16, 1862, The Compensated Emancipation Act abolished slavery in Washington D.C.; today it’s celebrated as “Emancipation Day.”

The evil of slavery is a blood-soaked stain on American history. It was not just merely the byproduct of racism, but more importantly the result of the sin of greed (which knows no color). Even CNN once acknowledged this before their descent into 24-7 fake news: “It was the Africans themselves who were enslaving their fellow Africans, sending them to the coast to be shipped outside." These words were from African researcher Akosua Perbi of the University of Ghana who specializes in the study of indigenous slavery in Ghana.