TNFro Is Reading...The Emancipation Proclamation, Juneteenth , 2 years after our legal freedom and 200 years later we are still fighting for it

 

                         Emancipation Proclamation (1863) By the President of the United States of America:

A Proclamation.

Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

"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; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

Over 270,000 remained enslaved for 2 1/2  years after this went into into law. 

Major Gen. Gordon Granger would arrive in Galveston with news that the war was over and yeah, we had been freed 2 years prior, June 19th, 1865.

Almost 200 years later we are still fighting for the same freedom and equality.

Why haven't we made changes? What is the hold up?

I explore the meaning of Juneteenth with my friend Lawrence Harris, reflecting on the meaning of freedom and friendship.