Juneteenth 2003

President George W. Bush June 19, 2003: In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be, free.” This news reached...

Judging Abraham Lincoln

Frederick Douglass, ORATION IN MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, delivered at the unveiling of the Freedmen’s Monument in Memory of Abraham Lincoln, in Lincoln Park, Washington, D.C., April 14, 1876 Inaugural Ceremonies of the Freedmen’s Memorial Monument to...

What, To the Slave, Is the Fourth of July? Excerpt 2

Frederick Douglass, July 5, 1852: I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. — The rich inheritance...

What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July? Excerpt 1

Frederick Douglass, July 5, 1852: Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I...

Juneteenth

From Juneteenth.com: Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news...