Pardon my cynicism, but how is it possible that the United States Senate can vote unanimously to establish Juneteenth as a federal holiday, but cannot or will not vote for the John Lewis Voting Act, the For the People Act, or the George Floyd Policing Act?
How can all 100 Senators vote for Juneteenth, but we cannot find 50 Senators willing to even debate voting rights?
I am pleased that the nation is facing up to its horrific past of human slavery. I am glad that the country is finally realizing that Lincoln did not free the slaves, because slavery was largely practiced in states that had seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. Those states did not recognize the authority of Lincoln, and none of them freed their slaves solely because of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. It was the Union Army that forced the end of slavery as they swept through the South, finally arriving in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865.
More precisely, it was members of the United States Colored Troops (USCT) many of them former slaves themselves, who brought the word about emancipation and forced white slave owners to comply. What a moment that must have been for the enslaved persons and for their enslavers! Those of us who are descendants of members of the USCT like my great-great-great uncle Elijah Alford, can draw great pride from their role in forcing an end to the cruelty of slavery in this country.
The real question is the protection of voting rights and prevention of excessive use of force by police officers that are among our nation‘s most pressing contemporary issues.
What most people forget is that Lincoln allowed slavery to continue in the Border States of Kentucky, Missouri, West Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware.
However, the question today is not about a federal holiday that is observed one day each year that focuses on our nation’s past. The real question is the protection of voting rights and prevention of excessive use of force by police officers that are among our nation‘s most pressing contemporary issues. Since when do Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Lindsay Graham care about Juneteenth? I doubt they have ever considered that event before. I am immediately suspicious when those Senators vote for anything that has to do with the African American community.
What I want to know is why they vote to establish a holiday that celebrates the end of legalized slavery — 156 years after the fact — but will not even consider holding a vote today that addresses problems this nation has faced since the end of slavery: voting rights and police brutality. This is a political con job where we focus on something symbolic rather than continuing to pursue the real objectives of expanded voting rights and protection from regular, random acts of violence by white police officers who remain shielded from their abuse by something called qualified immunity.
Republican-controlled state legislatures try to return many non-white voters to a condition of disenfranchisement reminiscent of actions taken during post-Reconstruction…
This country is on the verge of losing its democracy as Republican-controlled state legislatures try to return many non-white voters to a condition of disenfranchisement reminiscent of actions taken during post-Reconstruction that extended until the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Celebrating Juneteenth does not change that. In fact, it is the height of hypocrisy to offer a holiday in June, while taking away policies and protections that affect people’s lives every day!
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The Rev. Marvin A. McMickle, pastor emeritus of Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio, retired in 2019 as president of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, New York, where he had served since 2011.