Two McHenry County Juneteenth Events this Week

 

The official Juneteenth Federal Holiday marking Major General Gordon Granger's Proclamation on Galveston Island, Texas on June 19, 1865 will be observed this Friday.

Granger's General Order #3 read:

    The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the         United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of         property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them           becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their       present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at             military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.

It was the first word that many of the formerly enslaved people jamming the port got about the Emancipation Proclamation.  The next year the Free men and women celebrated the day of Jubilee which soon became annual celebrations.  In the 20th Century  commemorations spread nationally as representative of all Jubilees.  

President Joe Biden signed the legislation creating the Juneteenth holiday in 2021.  In his second occupation of the White House Donald Trump has tried mightily to erase the commemorations as part of his anti-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) purge.  Federal agencies will not support, publisize, or even report on the occasion.  It stubbornly remains a Federal Holiday.  

Observations like these two McHenry County Events are more than ever essential acts of Resistance.

        

Honoring Legacy, Empowering the Future presented by McHenry County Now.  Thursday, June 18 at 5:30 pm at the Cary Public Library.  Register here.

              

The McHenry County Juneteenth Festival will be held on Saturday, June 20, from 3 to 5:30 pm on Woodstock Square Woodstock.  

Festival founder Gloria Van Hoff reports that Attendees will also have the pleasure of enjoying Stev Walker and the Artistas Da Capoeira Woodstock, the soulful songs and music of Darlene Benton, soloist, and the The Ken Davis Project. We’ll also hear from Arlene Lynes, proprietor of Read Between the Lynes Bookshop. Sandi Johnson will be the keynote speaker.

It is All About the Fallen Whether It is Decoration Day or Memorial Day

  

The first wide-spread Decoration Day was observed in Northern states and at Union cemeteries in the former Confederacy by order of General John A. Logan, Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1868. 

Note—This is a regular Memorial Day history post.  It’s good to be reminded.

Monday, May 25 is officially Memorial Day in the United States.  The Uniform Holiday Act, passed in 1968, set 1971 as the year the Federal government would begin observing the holiday on the last Monday of May giving Americans a three-day holiday weekend to start the Summer season, to be balanced by a three-day Labor Day weekend in September.   Next Sunday, May 31 would have been the traditional last-day-of-May celebration

Veteran’s groups were nearly unanimous in opposition to the move fearing that it would dilute the observance as families planned fun activities instead of solemnly commemorating the war dead.  Several states refused at first to change their observances in conformity with the Federal law creating two Memorial Day holidays.   That proved unworkable and eventually all fell in line. 

Of course, the veteran groups were right.  Attendance at their parades and cemetery services dropped off in favor of barbeques or a day at the beach.  Every year attempts are made to restore the traditional date. 

The origins of that celebration go back to the end of the Civil War.   Almost as soon as the firing stopped communities were gathering to honor their dead, which in the sentimental 19th Century naturally meant trekking out to local cemeteries to festoon the graves with flowers.  Some credit the first organized commemoration to Confederate widows.  

Former slaves mass to salute the Stars and Stripes at the dedication of the cemetery they built for the Union soldiers who died in a Confederate prisoner of war camp on May 1, 1865.

Others claim that former slaves in Charleston, South Carolina originated it when they reburied Union soldiers who died in a Confederate prisoner of war camp there and dedicated the cemetery they created as a Union graveyard.  A local paper said that up to 10,000 people, mostly former slaves, were present for a dedication of the graveyard on May 1, 1865 marking the occasion with singing and prayers. 

Local observances sprang up in towns and cities both North and South.  Waterloo, New York lays claim to the first Decoration Day, as it became known with an observance on May 5, 1865.  It was surely not the first, and just one of many.  But the friendship of the local leader of the celebration, General John Murray with General John A. Logan, the Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R) planted the idea of creating a national observance.   

 General John A. Logan, Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic is heroically remembered in this hill top Grant Park monument in Chicago.

On May 5, 1868 Logan issued G.A.R. General Order No. 11 instructing local posts to participate: 

     The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

We are organized, comrades, as our regulations tell us, for the purpose among other things, of preserving and strengthening those kind and fraternal feelings which have bound together the soldiers, sailors, and marines who united to suppress the late rebellion." What can aid more to assure this result than cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead, who made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foes? Their soldier lives were the reveille of freedom to a race in chains, and their deaths the tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms. We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. All that the consecrated wealth and taste of the nation can add to their adornment and security is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders. Let no wanton foot tread rudely on such hallowed grounds. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.

If other eyes grow dull, other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain to us.

Let us, then, at the time appointed gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of spring-time; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us a sacred charge upon a nation's gratitude, the soldier's and sailor's widow and orphan.

It is the purpose of the Commander-in-Chief to inaugurate this observance with the hope that it will be kept up from year to year, while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades. He earnestly desires the public press to lend its friendly aid in bringing to the notice of comrades in all parts of the country in time for simultaneous compliance therewith…

To this day, Logan’s order is often read at Memorial Day observances conducted by the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and other veteran organizations. 

Confederate Memorial Day ceremony at Woodington Universalist Church in Lenoir County, North Carolina 1920.

Decoration Day was soon observed across the North, and at Union cemeteries in the South.  For many years it was confined to the Yankee dead and was thus boycotted by Southern states, most of which designated their own separate memorial days for the Confederate Dead.  It was not until after the Spanish American War in 1898 in which Southerners served in arms under the Stars and Stripes once again, that the notion began to spread of honoring all the war dead—although this was fought tooth and nail by the GAR.  The South began to share the May 30th date but tended to call their observances Memorial Days to differentiate them from the GAR’s Decoration Days. 

After World War I it became common to include the dead of that war—and later all wars—in the commemorations and the use of the term Memorial Day became more common even in the North.  But it was not Until 1967 the Congress officially changed the name.  

Moina Belle Michael started the tradition of selling poppies to support war refugees even before the entrance of the United States into World War I.  Later adopted by veteran groups not only from the US but the United Kingdom, Canada, and other Commonwealth countries.

In 1915 Georgian Moina Belle Michael, inspired by the poem In Flanders Fields by John McCrae conceived of the idea of making and selling paper flowers for the support of maimed soldiers.  When the U.S. entered the war in 1917 she began selling her poppies on Decoration Day to honor the dead of all wars.  She later donated proceeds to French and Belgian war orphans.  The poppy tradition spread to other Allied countries.  After the relief organization she had been donating to disbanded after the War, Michel approached the Veterans of Foreign Wars, who adopted Memorial Day poppy sales in 1922.  Two years later they inaugurated their annual Buddy Poppy sales.  Soon no respectable American would be seen on the streets on Memorial Day without a Poppy.  

The Color Guard at Union Cemetery in the annual Crystal Lake, Illinois Memorial Day ceremony, now mostly vets of the Gulf War and the seemingly endless conflicts since then.

These days the tradition of decorating soldier’s graves is kept alive by Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and veteran organizations who place small flags on the graves of veterans, not only at National Cemeteries, but in local graveyards as well.  Many cities and towns still hold parades, General Logan’s Order is read, prayers are uttered, politicians orate, high school bands play patriotic music, and sometimes straggling lines of elderly veterans fire volleys from rifles to salute of the flag. 

That’s the way it will be in my town, Crystal Lake, Illinois. 

Donald Trump really Does Not Want You to Notice this is the Official Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Holiday

 

Note:  I have posted this in one form or another on or around the Martin Luther King Day Federal Holiday for 17 years.  Long time readers may be sick of it.  Some of those who were offended in earlier rounds have left the building in a huff—or come to see that maybe it was not so far off the mark after all.  The thing is, year by year, it becomes more relevant.   

Today is the Federal Holiday celebrating the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This year Donald Trump has launched a full-scale attack on observance of the holiday by the Federal Government.  He has scrubbed Department and Agency web sites of relevant historical material, banned them from any observances, censored Smithsonian exhibits and programs, and scrapped the free admission days to National Park Service facilities.  But he has so far been unable to cancel the holiday altogether because that would require Congressional action.  Banks, the stock market, mail delivery, Federal Courts and offices, and most public schools will still be closed.  Federal employees will still get a paid day off.   

Dr. King was born on January 15, 1929 and was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.  It was a long, hard-fought effort to create a Federal holiday, following proclamations in several states.  President Ronald Reagan signed the legislation creating the holiday in 1983 and it was first celebrated nationally in 1986.  The senior George Bush moved the holiday to the third Monday in January, which this year falls on January 19. 

Despite the national observance, several states refused to enact state proclamations. After a national economic boycott threatened the Super Bowl in Arizona, the holiday was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000. 

Depending on your state, schools may or may not be open.  It they are you can count on some kind of touchy-feely programming that will assure children that once, long, long ago things weren’t so nice for Black people, but thanks to Dr. King everything is just fine now.  A tremendous amount of time will be spent emphasizing his non-violence, and schools now routinely use the occasion as a center-piece in their violence prevention programs.  They will also emphasize tolerance of those who are different—which it turns out may be the red-headed kid or the girl with a lisp.   

As laudable as these things are, children are not apt to be told that their grandparents may just have been the ones doing the oppression of Black folk.  Nor are they given any real sense of Dr. King as a truly revolutionary figure willfully defying the power of the state, demanding true systematic change, addressing class inequality, and in time of war leading an opposition to that war. 

In cities, towns, and villages across much of the country, there will be obligatory civic observations.  These most often take the form of prayer breakfasts, dutifully attended by local dignitaries of all races.  While some local Black preacher may take the occasion to lay out some harsh truths or even demand attention to continuing injustices, everybody will applaud politely.  Politicians will parade to the podium with bromides.  Someone—preferably the precocious son of a Black preacher—will intone words from the I Have a Dream Speech, and at the end maybe everyone will join hands and sing We Shall Over Come.  I bet you have been to just this kind of event.  Hell, I’ve even helped plan and put them on. 

In fact, today at the crack of 7:30 am here in the Northwest boonies of the Chicago area there will be attending the at the 17th Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Interfaith Prayer Breakfast sponsored by Faithbridge at the Holiday Inn NW Crystal Lake Elara Convention Center, 800 South Illinois Route 31 in Crystal Lake  featuring  a keynote speech by  the Rev. Norval Ignacius Brown  with a vegetarian breakfast at 7:30 and the program beginning at 8 am.   

The day is typically celebrated with nostalgic clips of the March on Washington on the news, and there may even be a documentary or two on Public Television—one of the reason Trump killed PBS. 

Many of the people who hated Dr. King when he was alive or who are their spiritual descendants will blandly join in the celebrations only to undercut them.  And then they will turn his words against him.  When you hear a plump politico with a honeyed accent quote, as they all love to do, the one phrase from the I Have a Dream speech where he spoke about the little children being “judged not on the color of their skins but on the strength of their characters,” watch out.  That hack is about to use Dr. Kings words to attack that dream.  He will say that now that we have erased statutory discrimination, any lingering program that gives disadvantaged minorities the slightest leg-up is itself discriminatory.  He will claim that Dr. King would want a perfectly color-blind society.  Unspoken is his deep conviction that in such a color-blind society, White men will rise like cream and be restored to their rightful place on top of the ladder—as if they had ever really lost it. 

Seven years ago, among the leading hijackers of Dr. King’s legacy was Vice President Mike Pence.  In an appearance of CBS TV’s Meet the Press he quoted King to support trading Donald Trump’s phony Border Wall for temporary relief from deportation of the DACA Dreamers.   

Dr. King will also be lauded for his non-violence, which will be translated as passivity.  Law breaking—including the kind the Civil Rights Movement routinely used—will be denounced.  No word will be uttered that Dr. King’s non-violence expected to provoke violent opposition and used that response to tweak the conscience of a democratic nation.   

Since Dr. King’s time, police departments have been provided with new arms and tactics.  New crowd control methods and security provisions make the kind of marches, sit-ins, and demonstrations led by King either difficult or kept far away from threatening the safety of those being protested, as was seen repeatedly in attacks on the Occupy Movement, Black Lives Matter protests, and at Standing Rock. New restrictions on the press and—when that doesn’t work—outright attacks, arrests, and physical intimidation—keeps reporters from fully covering acts of civil disobedience so that the public consciousness may be safely left un-tweaked.  Of course, as the January 6, 2021 events at the Capitol showed, that militaristic capacity was not used against White insurrectionists. 

                            Eight years ago King's daughter Bernice called out reptilian fascist Steve Bannon attempt to hijack her father's legacy. 

A few of years ago, rising to a new level of audacious gall, a senior Pentagon official, in a program marking Dr. King’s birth at the Department of Defense, actually argued that the Nobel Peace Prize winner would understand and approve of the “work of our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.” 

What is almost never mentioned? Dr. King's denunciation of the Vietnam War in his speech at New York's Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 turned many white liberals and most of the Democratic Party establishment against him.  He expected it would.  He spoke anyway.

We are told that because Dr. King was a faithful Baptist, he would not today support Gay, lesbian, and transgendered people and that it is a mockery to compare their struggle to the Civil Rights Movement.  The Black church is divided on this—even Dr. King’s children are—but it is hard to imagine his rejection of justice for them. 

Likewise, some Black leaders will claim, especially in their own communities, that Dr. King fought just for them, that gains he fought for should not be extended to the growing Latino minorities that threaten to displace them as the most oppressed. 

All of this is possible because more than 50 years after his death Martin Luther King has been sanitized.  He has been scrubbed clean of any semblance of actual humanity, any personal foibles or flaws, and midnight doubts or struggles of the soul.  He has become an empty vessel into which can be poured a safe and bland pudding which can placate pesky Blacks with a pat-on-the-head while protecting the status-quo. 

Enough!  The real flesh and blood Dr. King would have none of it.   

Let’s remember him today for who he was, not who the charlatans want to make him out to be.  And let’s remember that as great as he was, he was one man.  Let’s not denigrate the truly historic sacrifices of thousands and thousands of ordinary people who repeatedly literally put their lives on the line—and continue to do so today.  Let’s celebrate him and them by rededicating ourselves to standing up as they did, by putting our bodies, when necessary, on the line to achieve the true dream of an equitable and just society. 

Modern movements build on Dr. King's legacy.

And let’s embrace the new generation of committed and imaginative young Black leaders who are making sure America learns that Black Lives Matter and have energized new civil rights/economic justice movements like the Moral Monday Marches and the new Poor People’s Campaign.  If we are White, let us battle our own egos and fragilities, our fantasies of being White rescuers, commit to understand White privilege and systematic racism, and allow us to become true allies respectful of the leadership of the oppressed.