Juneteenth

By G. S. Norwood

This past weekend America celebrated a new federal holiday called Juneteenth. It has been a holiday—official and unofficial—in Texas for a long time, and those celebrations have slowly spread to other states across our nation, but June 19, 2022, was only the second time the whole country had the opportunity to celebrate the day when human enslavement was finally banished from our shores. Which seems like an excellent thing to celebrate, don’t you think?

A Bit of Juneteenth History

Juneteenth commemorates the day that United States Army General Gordon Granger landed in Galveston Bay with 4,000 mostly Black troops and an official declaration that slavery had been abolished. Black Americans were forever free. He arrived two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.

Travel was slow in the United States back then. Communication even slower. The pinheaded white supremacist plantation owners of Texas knew about emancipation, but refused to share the news with the people they held in slavery. White Texans had sided with the Confederacy because they enjoyed great financial benefits from using enforced, unpaid labor. And—still licking their wounds from their defeat in the Civil War—they just simply didn’t wanna give Black people their freedom.

You think today’s Trumpist Republicans are sore losers? Post-Civil War Confederates could have taught them a thing or two about the adamant refusal to accept reality. But once General Granger brought the news to Texas, Black people didn’t look back.

When General Granger came to town, the cat was out of the bag. (KVUE).

 

Community Celebrations

Not that the White power elite of Texas allowed the Black community to celebrate publicly. At least not to begin with. The celebrations started small, within family groups and the small freedmen communities the popped up all across the Lone Star State.

People would gather in parks and churches, in their own back yards or neighborhoods, and do what every American does when celebrating significant events. They brought food and music and friends. They ate and danced and flirted with the people who took their fancy. Reconnected to families, shared stories, and ate some more.

By the mid-twentieth century the celebrations became more widespread and more open. In 1980, the White establishment in the Texas legislature bowed to the inevitable, and made Juneteenth an official state holiday. I first heard of Juneteenth when I moved to Texas in 1985. Within a few years I began to hear of Juneteenth celebrations in Kansas City, St. Louis, and other cities around the country with significant Black populations.

Seven historic photos from the 1900-1913 period in Texas reflect the variety of early Texas Juneteenth celebrations. (See credits below).

 

Opal Lee

But the slow spread of Juneteenth celebrations wasn’t enough for Opal Lee, a teacher, historian, philanthropist, and community activist from Fort Worth, Texas. Ms. Lee had already spent many years raising her family, founding a local food bank, and advocating for civil rights. But she felt she ought to do more. So she decided to take a walk.

Specifically, she decided to walk from Fort Worth to Washington, D. C.—a distance of about 1400 miles—to draw attention to the importance of Juneteenth not only to Black Americans, but to ALL Americans. She made that walk in 2.5 mile increments, symbolizing the two and half years between the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and the day the news finally reached Texas. All along the way she gathered supporters, and signatures on a petition to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.

Years of effort for a moment of triumph – and a lasting legacy. (See credits below)

 

America’s Original Sin

Juneteenth is, after all, the day our nation redeemed the soul it sold in compromises over slavery when our Founding Fathers—all a bunch of White landowners—put together our nation’s Constitution.

Those Founding Fathers got an awful lot of stuff right when they wrote the Constitution. There’s a reason why it’s used as a template for other state and national constitutions all around the world. But they got the whole issue of human enslavement all wrong. Some of them, including George Washington, knew it at the time, although Washington only freed his slaves upon his death. The slaveholding landowners of the southern states and the slave traders of the north refused to budge, however.

Afraid they would lose the whole national experiment in democratic rule before it ever got off the ground, the founders caved. They sold the soul of our nation to form our nation. I guess they figured they’d be able to sort it all out at some later date.

This lithograph ca. 1853, The Life of George Washington: The Farmer is based on a painting by Junius Brutus Stearns. (See credits below).

 

Juneteenth Celebrates Freedom for All

Maybe 2022 is a bit later than even the founders figured on, but here we are, still sorting out our nation’s attitudes toward race, and determining for the next generation whether we really mean all those lofty promises about freedom and equality for all. Opal Lee, now 95, believes the adoption of Juneteenth as a national holiday is a step in the right direction. “Juneteenth is freedom, but we are not free until all of us are free,” Lee said this past Saturday, as she stepped out on yet another 2.5-mile walk. “There’s still work to be done.”

Lee recommends five ways to mark this new-to-White-folks holiday: reflection on our shared history; joyful celebration of the progress we’ve made; respect for the wisdom of our elders through the sharing of their stories; a “jamboree of feasting and fellowship”; and inclusion.

“No matter who you are,” Lee said, “Juneteenth is a unifier that represents freedom.”

In one of a whole collection of wonderful photos from the 2022 Juneteenth celebrations by CNN, Carlton Anderson performs in a Spartanburg SC spoken word event, 6/17/2022. (See credits below).

 

Editor’s Note

If you enjoyed this post about Juneteenth, you might also enjoy some of G.’s other posts about Texas history and culture. In posts related to her stories Deep Ellum Pawn and Deep Ellum Blues, you might enjoy her music-history posts The Legend of Robert Johnson and Deep Ellum Blues, the Song.

She and her sister Jan S. Gephardt co-wrote Whose History? But for G’s solo dives into Texas history and culture, see Layers of History and a Darn Good Dog, A Bowl of Red, and Lady Bird and the Wildflowers. For a look at unfolding “contemporary history” and culture in Texas, see Surviving a Not-So-Natural Disaster, What are They Thinking? And Is Texas Crazy? We think you’ll come away both enlightened and entertained.

IMAGE CREDITS

We have a lot of people to thank and acknowledge for the imagery that illustrates this post. Many thanks, first of all, to KVUE in Austin, TX for the detail from the Galveston Daily News issue of June 21, 1865, which published General Granger’s General Order Number Three. The other two single images have somewhat more complicated stories.

The Life of George Washington: The Farmer is a colored lithograph created around 1853 by a French lithographer named Régnier and printed by the Parisian printer Lemercier. Enslaved African-Americans labor in the background, while white children play in the lower left corner and George Washington is portrayed talking with another white man in the lower right. It is based on a painting, Washington as a Farmer at Mount Vernon, part of the “Washington Series,” (1847-1856) by the American painter Junius Brutus Stearns. The image is available via Wikimedia Commons.

One photo from a CNN gallery of wonderful pictures captured during the 2022 Juneteenth celebrations shows a man named Carlton Anderson as he participates in a spoken word event in Spartanburg, SC. CNN credited the photo to Alex Hicks Jr. of the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, via the USA Today Network. This one especially caught our art director’s fancy, but the entire collection is well worth a look.

The Early Juneteenth Celebrations

Both montages were assembled and composed by Jan S. Gephardt. When it comes to the historical Juneteenth photos, there is a massive wealth of absolutely wonderful photos. Early Texas celebrations took a variety of expressions, and there are especially delightful collections from Austin in 1900 and the Houston/Corpus Christi area in 1913. Public Domain Review is one source for far more wonderful images than we could portray here. You may remember Jan and the Homecoming Mums last February. She faced a similar temptation when it came to the decorated Juneteenth carriages and wagons.

The early Juneteenth photo montage centers on a Grace Murray Stephenson photo of a band that played in Eastwoods Park in Austin, TX, ca. 1900. Others by Stephenson, and apparently taken at the same event, show (clockwise from lower right) a group of Civil War re-enactors; children enjoying refreshments, a picnic table under a canopy, and elders who had formerly been enslaved.

The two sepia-tinged photos of decorated carriages come from two different libraries. At upper left, a photo by George McCuiston shows Daniel N. Leathers Sr. in Corpus Christi TX. The photo comes from the SMU Libraries. A note on the Public Domain Review page (scroll down) says of Leathers, “Born in North Carolina in 1855, [he] moved to Corpus Christi and became a successful merchant and was involved in state politics. A public housing development in Corpus Christi named in his honor was destroyed in 2017 to make way for the Harbor Bridge.”

In the lower right, a photo by Schlueter of Houston shows Martha Yates Jones and Pinkie Yates, “the Snow Balls of the Flower Parade, 1908,” in their decorated carriage. That one came from the Houston Public Library.

Opal Lee

Opal Lee’s montage opened a similar cornucopia of photo possibilities. Clockwise from lower left, Opal Lee speaks about Juneteenth at Ft. Worth City Hall in 2015. She leads a triumphant crowd on the first Federal holiday of Juneteenth, in Ft. Worth in 2021. Lee is the subject of a montage by MarketWatch in the upper right. Below at right, part of a 2020 Juneteenth walk in Ft. Worth, and below center, President Biden hands Lee a pen he used to sign the Juneteenth Federal Holiday into law, on 6/17/2021 in Washington DC. Vice President Kamala Harris stands beside her. Many thanks to all, and happy Juneteenth!

Is Texas Crazy?

By G. S. Norwood

I have chosen to live in the Lone Star State for more than thirty years. Since I wasn’t born and raised here, I have something of an outsider’s view when it comes to the cultural norms of White Texas society. It doesn’t take much observation to realize that more than a few things about my adopted state are . . . well, kinda screwy. It’s enough to make a rational gal like me ask, “Is Texas crazy?”

Weather

Every state in the union claims the old adage, “If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute.” But Texas weather really does go to extremes. Just over a year ago, Texas was suffering through what we now unlovingly refer to as the Great Texas Deep Freeze. Temperatures got extremely low for a state this far south. The electric grid nearly collapsed from the demand for heat.

And then things got dangerous. In one of the most prosperous states in our technologically-advanced country, more than 4 million people lost power—some of them for days on end. Nearly 250 people froze to death as a result of the storm, and I’m not talking about street sleepers. When your house has no heat for more than 24 hours, anyone can become vulnerable. Read about my own experience in last year’s blog post, Surviving a Not-So-Natural Disaster.

Is Texas crazy? When it comes to the weather, “Yes!” (See credits below).

The weather isn’t usually that severe, but it can still be a little wacky. Take this week, for example. On Monday, we’ll have cloudy skies, but the daytime high will hit somewhere close to 80°F. On Wednesday and Thursday we can, if we believe the forecast icons, expect giant ice meteors—or at least sleet—despite the fact that the daytime temps could reach the 40s. Is Texas crazy? When it comes to the weather, I have to say, “Yes!”

Where the East Peters Out

Culturally, Texas can also show signs of a split personality. To a lot of people, Texas means cowboys, or at least a cowboy lifestyle—boots, jeans, Stetson hats. “Yes ma’am,” and “all y’all.” But in today’s Texas, that cowboy thing is only a reality in the western part of the state. Legendary Fort Worth journalist Amon Carter declared “Fort Worth is where the West begins,” and he had a point. Out on the open plains beyond Fort Worth, ranching is still big business, although many folks have traded in their horses for a good Ford F-150 pickup truck.

Photos from both rural and urban parts of the DFW Metroplex: Ft. Worth and Dallas each have their own unique characteristics, but Big Tex greets everyone with a great big “Howdy!” (See credits below).

But if Fort Worth is where the West begins, that means Dallas is where the East peters out, and there’s some truth to that as well. Despite the popular television franchise, Dallas isn’t really about oil. Dallas is about oil money. Before that, it was about cotton money. Or cattle money. Any kind of money, really. Dallas built itself on banking and commerce, and it looked eastward for inspiration when the city fathers sought to position Dallas as a center of civilization, not a crude outpost on the far frontier. They built churches and founded symphonies. They established art museums and created retail stores that became legendary for their fashion and flair.

West of Fort Worth, folks might still greet you with a friendly “hahdie.” The only one in Dallas who still says “Howdy” is Big Tex.

So, is Texas about cowboys? Or is it about the sleek trappings of modern wealth? It’s both, really. As well as the hippie vibe and high tech of Austin, and the deeply rooted Hispanic culture of San Antonio. It’s about all of it, from haute cuisine to street tacos and barbecue joints. Texas is a big state, with room for multitudes.

Non-Texans can only gape in awe at the size, colors, and endless, creative variety that makes each Homecoming Mum and Garter an amazing production. (See credits below).

Homecoming Mums

Some Texas stuff, however, is just inexplicably weird. There’s the way everybody automatically claps four times in the middle of singing Deep in the Heart of Texas. Or high school football games, which are far more popular and important to most people than anything those professional guys in the blue and silver uniforms do.

Maybe it’s because high school football is such a big deal that high school homecoming celebrations have become such a big deal, too. And the biggest big deal of any high school homecoming celebration in Texas is the Homecoming Mum.

All over Texas, every year they’re in high school, teens of all genders create or buy and proudly display their Homecoming mums and garters. (See credits below).

Not content to drape young ladies in a simple corsage at homecoming, Texans build huge, elaborate floral . . . Things. With ribbons, and charms, lights and teddy bears and . . . Stuff. Sometimes the mums are bigger than the girls who wear/carry them. Sometimes the mums come as part of a suite of flowers, including armlet garters for the guys. Some Texas mothers have been known to start home-based businesses to feed the Homecoming Mum mania. Is Texas crazy? When it comes to Homecoming Mums, the answer is definitely, “Yes!”

So, Is Texas Crazy?

Any state that keeps re-electing politicians who ignore a failing foster care system, but obsess about where transgender people go to pee, has to have a large ration of crazy in the mix. At the same time, any state that can produce a fierce fighter for civil rights like Opal Lee has to offer up an equally large serving of vision and humanity. Thanks to Opal Lee, Juneteenth—an observance I had never heard of until I moved to Texas—is now a national holiday. Who can’t get behind a day that celebrates the end of human enslavement in our nation? Shouldn’t we all at least raise a beer to that?

The amazing Texan, Opal Lee, persisted until Juneteenth became a national holiday. (See credits below).

Texas is the second fastest-growing state in the country. Even in these pandemic years, when many people have chosen to hunker down wherever they are and stay in familiar surroundings, the Texas Relocation Report 2021 estimates that more than 500,000 people moved to Texas in 2019. That was the seventh year in a row to see the new Texas residents top 500,000. Folks come here to find better jobs, more affordable housing, warmer weather, or just a wide-open horizon that promises all kinds of possibilities.

Texas is the second-fastest-growing state in the USA. Is Texas crazy? Or are people simply crazy about it? (illustration courtesy of Reform Austin).

 

Is Texas is crazy? Yes! It’s crazy big, and crazy diverse, and it can swing from horrifying to hilarious at a moment’s notice. It has crazy weather and crazy customs. And it’s jam-packed with wonderful, awful, loveable, deeply human people from all over the world, who bring all their baggage with them when they come. Is it any wonder so many people move here? For now, at least, I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.

IMAGE CREDITS

We have a lot of people to thank for the photos and other images in this post. All of the montages were designed and assembled by Jan S. Gephardt. For the “Weather Memes” illustration, we are indebted to Austin.com for “one weekend in Austin;” to Digital Mom Blog for the “-1 to 70” and “Powerball Numbers” memes; to Wide Open Country for “two seasons alternate days,” and to a “Dallas” subreddit for the “Texas Weather Last Week/This Week” meme. G. did a screen-grab of whatever weather app she has on her phone for the “week’s weather forecast with ‘ice-meteor’ icons.” The Texas flag that underlies them came from the Belson company.

The ”Fort Worth and Dallas” montage includes photos of the Dallas and Ft. Worth urban centers, both courtesy of Ted Bauer and White Rock Locators. “Hello Little Home” contributed the photo of Big Tex, without whom it just wouldn’t be the State Fair. We’d like to thank “Land and Farm” for the photo of the rural land in Collin County, TX that backs the Dallas photo. Jan took the photo that backs the Ft. Worth photo in March, 2005, not far from where G. and Warren lived at that time.

Those Mind-Blowing Homecoming Mums!

Jan admits she went a little, um, yes, crazy with the Homecoming Mum pictures, but the extravagant creativity and variety made it hard to narrow them down. In the first montage, Misty Owen created the “M”-emblazoned, orange-black-and-white mum her daughter holds in the picture, and sent the photo to the Dallas Morning News. I’m indebted to The Colt News for the group of four young women with their mums at their school’s Homecoming breakfast; they didn’t name the young ladies or their school. Young men’s garters are only somewhat less elaborate than their female dates’ mums, as you can see from the poolside photo of Emily and David (no last names or locations given). Many thanks for it from "Texas Traditions" on Facebook.

In the second Homecoming Mums montage, the ambitious and resourceful young woman whose corsage almost seems to be wearing her is Brittany Eicker. Her “Texas” mum made the Wall Street Journal, although she also showed up on at least one other website, too. The photo of the grinning trio from “MHS” came courtesy of My San Antonio. And the Hays Free Press provided the red-white-and-blue mum and garter pair, as well as the trio of Lehman High School Lobos boosters, L-R, Faith Parra, Sarah Miranda, and Rosa Fabian. Many thanks to all!

More Texas Topics

The amazing Opal Lee and her Juneteenth project provide plenty of inspiration, including for the fifth montage. At left, the official Juneteenth Flag is full of symbolic meaning. The photo of this particular flag is courtesy of North Carolina State College of Education. The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram provided the Amanda McCoy photo of Opal Lee leading a group down Lancaster Avenue in Ft. Worth on June 19, 2020.

Finally, we thank Reform Austin for the illustration-map showing places large groups of new Texans have left behind, and how many did so in a recent year (probably 2019 or 2018).