BS: June teenth today

Subject: BS: June teenth today
From: mg
Date: 20 Jun 09 - 12:14 AM

We almost missed it...mg

Subject: RE: BS: June teenth today
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 20 Jun 09 - 12:40 AM

I thought Juneteenth was variable.

Subject: RE: BS: June teenth today
From: mg
Date: 20 Jun 09 - 01:48 AM

I don't know. I thought it was the 19th..but then I also thought it was the 17th. I will google it. mg

Subject: RE: BS: June teenth today
From: Bobert
Date: 20 Jun 09 - 09:47 AM

How appropriate...

I didn't get a chance to read the details but I believe the Senate paassed a resoultion officially apologizing for slavery...

Anyone up on that story???

B~

Subject: RE: BS: June teenth today
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Jun 09 - 10:57 AM

Out here we celebrated last weekend.

Subject: RE: BS: June teenth today
From: Azizi
Date: 20 Jun 09 - 04:17 PM

"WASHINGTON, June 19 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Friday marked the 144th anniversary of Juneteenth, the day enslaved African Americans in Texas learned they were free.

"Nearly a century and a half later, the descendants of slaves and slave owners can commemorate the day together and celebrate the rights and freedoms we all share in this great nation that we all love," Obama said in a statement.

He said the anniversary also provides a chance to reflect, appreciate and trace family lineage.

"African-Americans helped to build our nation brick by brick and have contributed to her growth in every way, even when rights and liberties were denied to them," Obama said. "In light of the historic unanimous vote in the United States Senate this week supporting the call for an apology for slavery and segregation, the occasion carries even more significance."

The Senate Thursday passed a resolution in which it apologizes to African-Americans for the "the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery" and subsequent Jim Crow laws that sanctioned segregation well into the 20th century.

Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, commemorates the June 19, 1865, announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas. It is recognized as a state holiday in 31 states."

-snip-
[Italics added by me for emphasis]

"Juneteenth" isn't a state holiday in the state I grew up in {New Jersey) or the state where I live now (Pennsylvania). I knew nothing about Juneteenth until the late 1990s when the only "Black" radio station in Pittsburgh (which is slated to stop broadcasting soon-but that's another story) started sponsoring a hip-hop/R&B event for that day. In Pittsburgh, anyway, any Juneteenth event is held the Saturday after June 19th.

I dare say few African Americans in the Northern states (of the USA) know much about Juneteenth. But I understand it is really celebrated big time in certain Southern states like Texas.

Subject: RE: BS: June teenth today
From: Azizi
Date: 20 Jun 09 - 05:22 PM

Senate Backs Apology for Slavery
Resolution Specifies That It Cannot Be Used in Reparations Cases

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Senate Backs Apology for Slavery
Resolution Specifies That It Cannot Be Used in Reparations Cases

By Krissah Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 19, 2009

The Senate unanimously passed a resolution yesterday apologizing for slavery, making way for a joint congressional resolution and the latest attempt by the federal government to take responsibility for 2 1/2 centuries of slavery.

"You wonder why we didn't do it 100 years ago," Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), lead sponsor of the resolution, said after the unanimous-consent vote. "It is important to have a collective response to a collective injustice."

The Senate's apology follows a similar apology passed last year by the House. One key difference is that the Senate version explicitly deals with the long-simmering issue of whether slavery descendants are entitled to reparations, saying that the resolution cannot be used in support of claims for restitution. The House is expected to revisit the issue next week to conform its resolution to the Senate version.

Harkin, who called the Senate's vote an "important and significant milestone," said he wanted the resolution passed yesterday to closely coincide with Juneteenth, a holiday first celebrated by former slaves to mark their emancipation.

This recent willingness to deal with the nation's difficult racial history has come about in part because of President Obama's election, said Rep. Stephen I. Cohen (D-Tenn.), who began pushing for an apology more than a decade ago when he was a state senator and pronounced himself "pleased" with the Senate vote.

Still, Cohen said, "there are going to be African Americans who think that [the apology] is not reparations, and it's not action, and there are going to be Caucasians who say, 'Get over it.' . . . I look at it as something that makes people think."...

Cohen said he and Harkin worked closely with the NAACP and other civil rights groups on language that would not endorse or preclude any future claims to reparations. "It will not harm reparations but won't give any standing to it," Cohen said."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/18/AR2009061803877.html

Subject: RE: BS: June teenth today
From: CarolC
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 01:32 AM

Apparently it's not as well known in the Southeast as in Texas. We were hanging out with some of our neighbors today (almost all of them are African American), and I asked some of them if anyone around the neighborhood celebrates Juneteenth. Only one of them had even heard of it.

Subject: RE: BS: June teenth today
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 07:34 PM

Juneteenth is always on June 19. It isn't a holiday where banks close or school is out, but it is celebrated and recognized here in Texas.

It's easy for us to remember because it is one of those double dates at our house--Juneteenth and my ex' birthday.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: June teenth today
From: CarolC
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 12:03 AM

Juneteenth may always actually fall on June 19th, but it's not always celebrated on that date. According to the neighbor of ours who already knew about Juneteenth, Jacksonville, a town about an hour north of here, celebrated it on Saturday the 20th.

Subject: RE: BS: June teenth today
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 08:12 PM

Yeah, they do a big celebration here in Central VA, and I missed it, to my dismay I only saw the ads for it upon returning from NoVA.

Subject: RE: BS: June teenth today
From: jeddy
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 08:40 PM

with me being in the U.K i have never heard of it.
it is good to remember the mistakes of the past, although i am undecided whether an apology is nesassary(?).

it is part of all our history,not just africans but most of the world has suffered from that horrendous praticse at some stage.whites being slaves to PoC as well as the other way round.

does it make a difference if the US says sorry?

i am not being flippent just curious as to your' thoughts on this.

take care and much respect to all of you

jade x x

Subject: RE: BS: Juneteenth today
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 10:53 PM

In TEXAS, they celebrate this holiday that commemorates when TEXAS slaves finally learned of the Emancipation Proclamation on JUNE 19. That's it. Those other states can play fast and loose if they want. Texas doesn't.

That's all she wrote.