The National Archives state that on June 19, 1865, two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln’s historic Emancipation Proclamation, U.S. Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3, which informed the people of Texas that all enslaved people were now free.
That day has come to be known as Juneteenth, a combination of June and 19th. It is also called Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, and it is the oldest known celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.
In Colorado Springs, two events mark the occasion this year.
The Southern Colorado Juneteenth Festival will be held at the Citadel Mall this year, starting Friday, June 20, and running through Sunday, June 22. According to organizers, “This free three-day event will be a celebration for people of all races, nationalities and religions joining together as one body to truthfully acknowledge a period in our history that shaped and continues to influence our society today.” More info at CSJuneteenthFestival.com.
The African American Historical and Genealogical Society of Colorado Springs is hosting a Juneteenth Celebration at the Westside Community Center from noon to 4 p.m. The event features historical and genealogical booths, business vendors, kids activities and story hour, poetry, dancing, and reenactment performances. There will be a Freedom March at noon. More info at AAHGSCS.net/events.
In honor of the day, the Pikes Peak Bulletin is publishing an original poem about Juneteenth, written by a local poet under a pen name.
Waiting on freedom
BY JACKSON PEARL
The “great emancipator” proclaimed on Jan 1 of 1863 no longer was it the right of an alabaster cruelty to let the bullwhip fly to sadistically tear Black flesh, to not just inflict pain, but to instill fear of what’s to come if this less than human African savage forgot their place and failed to appease the “generous” nature of a white ameriKKKan master.
No more No more picking that cotton
No more No more hangings from the trees
Thank you “great emancipator” LET FREEDOM RING
Thank you “great emancipator” LET FREEDOM RING
OH ABRAHAM, WHAT WOULD WE DO WITHOUT YOU?
The “great emancipator” proclaimed on Jan 1 of 1863 that it was no longer right to fetishize that dark forbidden fruit and release that vilest alabaster lust upon the unwilling non-consensual Black womb “blessing” the mothers, sisters, daughters, wives with the seed of the most superior white ameriKKKan master.
No more No more taking the women
No more No more children left to see
No more No More breaking up family
No more No more hangings from the trees
Thank you “great emancipator” LET FREEDOM RING
Thank you “great emancipator” LET FREEDOM RING
OH ABRAHAM, WHAT WOULD WE DO WITHOUT YOU?
Oh Lord the blessing of this blessed piece of scripture freedom it brings, respect it brings, love it brings, equality it brings!
THEY HAVE TO SEE US NOW, Lord OH Lord.
We just like them Oh Lord
We will be treated right now Oh Lord
On April 9 of 1865 did he that general lee surrender! Civil war is over! Now we really are FREE!
June 19 of 1865, now journey down to Texas, now journey into Galveston where their ears haven’t heard, where they didn’t know. Still enduring enslavement, cruelty ain’t nothing changed. Still fearing their master, ain’t nothing changed. They didn’t know it has been proclaimed by the “great emancipator” that we are FREE!
Two more years of cruelty
Two more years of pain
Two more years of hangings
Watch them all swing
We remember that day June 1-9 … JUNETEENTH
ALTHOUGH WE WERE FAR FROM EQUAL
ALTHOUGH WE WERE FAR FROM RESPECTED
ALTHOUGH WE WERE FAR FROM BEING LOVED, FAR FROM BEING SEEN AS HUMAN
WE REMEMBER THE DAY THAT 250,000 OF OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS, OUR ANCESTORS, OUR PEOPLE THAT IT WAS PROCLAIMED THAT WE HAD A CHOICE TO NO LONGER ACCEPT THIS SH**!!!
WE ARE SO BLACK, WE ARE SO BEAUTIFUL
THEY CAN CALL US WHAT THEY WILL
THEY CAN THROW AT US WHAT THEY WILL
THEY CAN TRY AND TRY AGAIN TO DULL THE SHINE THAT BRILLIANT BLACKNESS RADIATES
BUT WE CAN ENDURE
WE CAN OVERCOME
THEY KNOW ON WHO’S BACKS THIS COUNTRY WAS BUILT UPON
THESE BEAUTIFUL BLACK BACKS!!!!
OH LET FREEDOM RING FOR WE WILL NEVER ACCEPT THEY SH** AGAIN!
BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL!
HAPPY JUNETEENTH
