having been stationed in galveston at one time the holiday was well known.......
galveston was where a few confederate generals after defeat, that refused to sign their allegience oath went to start their new nation....not telling their slaves that they brought in tow that they were in fact free......
Originally posted by stormer73: I agree.Emancipation should be a holiday.
Absolutely. We celebrate out nation's independence from Britain. Why shouldn't we celebrate the release from bondage of an entire race? Emancipation Day would be more about liberty and freedom than Indepedence Day is, anyway. Especially to the black people and non-land owners of that day.
this may be shocking but.....i'd have to disagree with it being a national holiday....unless you'd combine it with MLK day and put it in the black history month....hey they put two presidents birthdays together, i think they can combine other holidays.........or are you just trying to get out of work?
Originally posted by SacraficialMetal: this may be shocking but.....i'd have to disagree with it being a national holiday....unless you'd combine it with MLK day and put it in the black history month....hey they put two presidents birthdays together, i think they can combine other holidays.........or are you just trying to get out of work?
Hey, I like any excuse for a day off to drink beer. But, I think that MLK Day and Emancipation Day would cover separate issues. Even after actual Emancipation, black people in this country had to suffer through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, etc. Dr. King helped bring about civil rights legislation.
I see plenty of room to recognize both issues with their own holidays. If a genocidal maniac like Columbus gets his own holiday, then we can live with an Emancipation Day.
There is a common misconception among Americans that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves with a stroke of his pen. Yet the Emancipation Proclamation, which went into effect on Jan. 1, 1863, did no such thing — or, at least, it didn't do a very good job of it. Two and a half years later, on June 19, 1865, Union soldiers sailed into Galveston, Texas, announced the end of the Civil War, and read aloud a general order freeing the quarter-million slaves residing in the state. It's likely that none of them had any idea that they had actually been freed more than two years before. It was truly a day of mass emancipation. It has become known as Juneteenth.
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Like Sac, I also disagree. We spend too much time celebrating our differences and not enough time just celebrating being Americans! But thanks for posting this as I – being a typical white person – never heard of it!
Well, those of us who don't have hang-ups about differences don't have a problem with this. It's not about race. It should be a celebration for the entire nation. For black people, it's a celebration of being granted freedom. For the rest of us, it's a celebration of our country becoming as progressive as the rest of the developed world; our country finally starting to grow up.
I think that that combining it with MLK Day and sticking it in Black History Month is what would cause the division. The only message that would send is that it's only a significant day for black people. This should be something that everyone could, and should, celebrate.
Hey, I like any excuse for a day off to drink beer. But, I think that MLK Day and Emancipation Day would cover separate issues. Even after actual Emancipation, black people in this country had to suffer through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, etc. Dr. King helped bring about civil rights legislation. 
