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independence day
As a kid, I grew up fishing and sailing on Lake Pontchartrain. I learned to respect the weather. One summer afternoon as I was standing near the Coast Guard Station at the mouth of the harbor, a vicious summer squall came roaring in. As I sat in the safety of the car, I watched a sailboat fight for survival. It was making a run to the safety of the harbor when the storm hit. It sat floundering in the high waves and brutal cross winds just at the entrance of the jetty that protected the harbor entrance. A few more feet and it would have found smooth water. Unfortunately, it was on the wrong side of the entrance.
The term “the road to war” is defined as the long and complicated process where various factors, actions and decisions lead to an outcome. This term can be applied to the events leading up to our own nation’s decision to fight for independence. On this “road to war,” two divergent visions of rights, freedom, governance, control and status clashed: the American vision and the British vision. And it was not until 1783, nearly eight years after the events in 1775 at Lexington and Concord, that a peace treaty would be signed in Paris.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will be commemorating and celebrating Juneteenth in a special online worship service on Wednesday, June 16, at 9 a.m. EDT. The theme for the service is “What Is the Work of the People — Holding the Legacy While Building Our Destiny.”
Every year since 1865, there has been one day that most Black people have held as a celebratory occurrence. On June 19, 1865, the last of the Black Americans who were in the condition of chattel servitude were freed. Texas, the last state to hold out on the edict of the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln more than two years prior, had finally been forced into compliance. And so, it is this date in June that many Black Americans consider to be Independence Day and thus a cause for annual jubilation that we have titled Juneteenth.
Has there ever been a more challenging Fourth of July? With a worldwide pandemic, COVID-19 deaths well above 100,000, and a new realization that our nation remains a flawed and racist society, one can understand why we may not want to celebrate the red, white and blue this year.
Every year since 1865, there has been one day that most Black people have held as a celebratory occurrence. On June 19, 1865, the last of the Black Americans who were in the condition of chattel servitude were freed. Texas, the last state to hold out on the edict of the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln more than two years prior, had finally been forced into compliance. And so, it is this date in June that many Black Americans consider to be Independence Day and thus a cause for annual jubilation that we have titled Juneteenth.
We pause today to remember and celebrate the brave action of the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. On that date the delegates voted to officially adopt the Declaration of Independence. A committee of five was tasked to have the text printed and dispatched across the 13 colonies as rapidly as possible. These copies departed Philadelphia on July 5.
