ON THIS DAY OF CELEBRATION, Juneteenth, I reflect on our nation’s past, on how far we’ve come and how far we have yet to go.
June 19, 1865, marks the day when enslaved people in Texas learned of the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln 2 ½ years earlier. That proclamation freed slaves in Confederate states. It wasn’t until the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was passed in December 1865 that slavery was fully abolished in the entire United States.
Thinking about slavery is difficult. It’s emotionally challenging to consider that some 4 million men, women and children were “owned,” treated like property rather than human beings. Forced to work, forced to live under abusive and oppressive conditions. Without freedom to come and go.
Today the focus is not on the awfulness of slavery, but rather on the move from enslavement to freedom. Thus the celebrations on Juneteenth.
Moving onward as a people and a nation, we need to work harder on respecting one another, no matter our skin color, our social status, our differences. We’ve certainly made strides. But the reality is that we can do better.
© Copyright 2023 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
So much still to do, but it’s a beginning
Fully agree.
Nice post. And yes, we can do better.
Always ways to improve.