On January 1, 1863 Abraham Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation declaring that “all persons held as slaves are, and henceforward shall be free.”
However, this was done solely as a way to save the union — it was a war fighting political move. Lincoln didn’t care one way or another about the enslaved Africans who were forced for 200 years to build a capitalist economy for white people.
Slave owners in Texas kept this bit of freedom news from enslaved Africans and enjoyed their enslaved labor for two more years. It wasn’t until June 19, 1865 that Union soldiers, led by General Gordon Granger, landed at the slave port in Galveston, Texas with the proclamation in hand and the news that the war was over and the enslaved Africans were now “free.”
Today, in our recognition of Juneteenth, let us raise up these Africans who were tricked and kept captive way past their so-called “emancipation”.
Let’s honor our people who remained working unpaid for months after June 19, 1865; and the African men who were targeted and arrested so that they could provide free labor via the convict leasing system as they were leased out en masse to plantations where they formerly had been enslaved.
Let’s not forget that, since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, Africans in the U.S. are still colonized and unfree, just like Africans all over the world.
A true emancipation proclamation would have come with fleets of ships destined for the shores of Africa and the 200 years of wealth that the US accumulated through our enslavement.
Are we truly liberated if African people must constantly plead and attempt to convince the white world that “black lives matter”?
The fact is, there is no such thing as freedom for African people living under colonialism. In order for us to truly be free, we must continue the struggle to destroy colonialism, capitalism and all its effects.
