“For the revelation awaits
an appointed time….Though it linger, wait for it…” Habakkuk 2:3
Juneteenth Was an
Answer to Centuries of Prayer
by Eric Washington
“The first celebration of
Juneteenth began at the same courthouse in Galveston, on the same date where,
one year before, enslaved people in Texas learned that the war was over and
they were now free….Union Major General Gordon Granger had read, “The people of
Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive
of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality
of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves. …”
On this day, June 19, 1866, the Emancipation Proclamation was read out loud,
and then those gathered progressed (to church) for a public prayer meeting.
“Theologian J. Kameron Carter
writes,
“Juneteenth invites us to reflect upon the fact that during the two-and-a-half-year period between Emancipation Day and Juneteenth, there were still some people of color, people of African descent in the United States, who were still in bondage. They were still functioning as slaves, though legally they were free. Juneteenth, then, was for them a delayed celebration, a delayed enforcement of freedom. It represented a lagging liberation. This time lag of liberation is a metaphor of what it means to exist in the in-between of freedom, in freedom’s now-but-not-yet. In other words, Juneteenth points to the fact that liberation is not a one-time event. It is an ongoing project beckoning us to write the vision of freedom and issue renewed proclamations of “freedom now.” Juneteenth signifies the fact that freedom and liberation is both behind and ahead of us.
“Juneteenth invites us to reflect upon the fact that during the two-and-a-half-year period between Emancipation Day and Juneteenth, there were still some people of color, people of African descent in the United States, who were still in bondage. They were still functioning as slaves, though legally they were free. Juneteenth, then, was for them a delayed celebration, a delayed enforcement of freedom. It represented a lagging liberation. This time lag of liberation is a metaphor of what it means to exist in the in-between of freedom, in freedom’s now-but-not-yet. In other words, Juneteenth points to the fact that liberation is not a one-time event. It is an ongoing project beckoning us to write the vision of freedom and issue renewed proclamations of “freedom now.” Juneteenth signifies the fact that freedom and liberation is both behind and ahead of us.
“In this long moment of
anti-black racism that has manifested itself in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery,
and the long list of unarmed African Americans killed unjustifiably by police
officers, including Eric Garner, Oscar Grant, Alton Sterling, George Floyd, and
Breonna Taylor, Juneteenth is a commemoration of African American suffering and
overcoming. It is a recognition that the prayers of the suffering and the oppressed
can be answered, even if it ultimately takes centuries.”
Eric Michael Washington,
PhD, is associate professor of history and director of African and African
diaspora studies at Calvin University, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The full article is found here: https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/2020/june/juneteenth-answered-prayer-slavery-emancipation.html?share=TXasTDkfcmj+a8TntR/MavIIFJtI89gf
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