Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #Juneteeth
Most recents (3)
As we celebrate #Juneteenth, let us keep in mind that African Americans during the Civil War distinguished between *abolishing slavery* and *freeing people.* Many formerly enslaved people did not feel *free* in 1865 and thereafter, and they clearly articulated why. A thread 1/
On January 12, 1865, General William T. Sherman met with twenty Black leaders in Savannah, Georgia, over the future of African Americans in the area. These African Americans gave this Union general a crash course on their definitions of slavery and freedom. 2/
Slavery meant “receiving by irresistible power the work of another man, and not by his consent,” said the group’s spokesman, Garrison Frazier. Freedom was “placing us where we could reap the fruit of our own labor.” To accomplish this—to be truly free—we must “have land.” 3/
Hi my name is Domo. I’m from south Texas and a black Texan. My dad was born in 1936 and his grandma was a baby when black enslaved folk were freed in Texas on #Juneteeth ima tell y’all how we celebrate Independence Day in my family.
So. I’m from San Antonio, my daddy was from Gonzales county Texas (about an hour between San Antonio and Houston) every year during Juneteeth we would do what’s called a watermelon thump.
Watermelon is now a really twisted stereotype for black people but that actually came from an early disinformation campaign because post enslavement black folk were able to grow and sell them to make a living. White people didn’t like that so… stuff like this started to pop up. 
1/ A conservative friend of mine argued at various times and in different contexts (including racial preferences or affirmative action), that slavery ended in 1865, he had nothing to do with it, so why don't African-Americans "just get over it." #RaceMatters
2/ Yes, slavery ended in 1865 and while it contributed greatly to the wealth of white America, African-Americans were given nothing in return as the government reneged on its promise of 40 acres and a mule after the end of the Civil War. #RaceMatters pbs.org/wnet/african-a…
3/ Compare this to the Homestead Act of 1866 which transferred an area of land in the west the size of CA and TX (10% of all US land) to whites who need only improve it for 5 years and file a deed. aeon.co/ideas/land-and… #RaceMatters
