JUNETEENTH
I didn’t learn about Juneteenth until the summer of 1983. I arrived at a training site in Arkansas. The units were primarily from Texas.
Just as soon as I was dropped off by the helicopter into the training area I sensed some upsetness in the unit. I asked what was going on and several of the members of the unit said it was “Juneteenth.” I had to admit I didn’t know what they were talking about. So they told me.
They told me about how in Texas the word about the end of the Civil War was not passed on for months. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox, Virginia on April 9, 1865. President Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation had become official several years before. But, in the Western States the war continued and slaves had not heard that they had been set free until June 19, 1965.
In churches and communities in Texas, liberated people celebrated a jubilee.
The soldiers in our units back in the 1980s had hoped to celebrate this special day, but were on orders to train. Those in command did not know the significance of this day for many in the unit. This was my introduction too to Juneteenth.