The Road to Black Economic Development: Juneteenth - a podcast by Antonio Hicks

I’m giving my Co-Host a break on this episode because I want to do a brief history lesson to those who don’t know about Juneteenth, don’t worry she’ll be back as we move into a topic on real estate and land ownership to hand down to the next generation and how we were denied that which further set us back in generational wealth. In this episode, I’m going to venture off a little and talk about what started the Road of Progression and that’s going back to the beginning June 19th, 1865. Enslaved African-Americans in Galveston, Texas were told they were free 2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and that’s partially due to Texas having minimal Union Troops there to enforce the new Executive Order. With the surrender of General Lee in April 1865 and the arrival of General Granger’s regiment, forces were finally able to overcome the resistance.

That point alone is baffling to me in trying to understand how individuals who will tell Mexicans that they lost the war and just get over it because their land was taking away from them are the same ones who celebrate the Confederacy and their heritage even though they themselves lost and celebrate a terrorist faction. Yes to go against the government in order to fight for your own personal belief is a form of terrorism. If you don’t know please read into how Mexico initially owned present-day California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico until President James K. Polk decided he wanted to take it away from them. So yeah “Make America Great Again” right but let’s get back to Juneteenth.

Even after being free families had no-where to go but felt as though freedom was better than staying on a plantation. Now in my opinion I believe slaves should have been given land just as whites were when they broke their agreement with native tribes and stole land from them. If slaves can help build a community then a community should have been established that was given to them. Never-the-less with no destination in mind, some headed North because it represented true freedom to them. When it comes to festivities and celebrating Juneteenth there was a traditional set of activities that we all partake in today such as barbecuing, baseball, etc. Now per history, it says there were rodeos but being from the South I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a rodeo at one of our celebrations lol but that’s not to say it didn’t happen in earlier times because I do know some black horse riders.

The biggest thing I like is that during almost all celebrations education played a major part and so did self-improvement; guest speakers and elders would be called out to drop knowledge on historical events and things of the past. Prayer services were a major part as well as we believed if it was for our religious beliefs we don’t know how we could have made it out of our troubles.

Dressing up was another part of celebrating Juneteenth because laws were put into place prohibiting slaves from being dressed up so of course after emancipation some slaves tossed their old garments into the river and adorned the clothing of their former masters. That right there is something in itself is asinine, who creates a law to tell someone they can’t dress up. I mean can you imagine but with all the Karen’s and Tom’s causing so much confusion bothering people where they live, while sitting by the pool, cooking out in a park, accusing babies of groping them, or just getting mad because they think you’re guilty of something I can believe just that.

A resurgence of the celebration of Juneteenth is coming back with institutions like the Smithsonian, the Henry Ford Museum amongst others sponsoring Juneteenth centered activities.

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