JUNETEENTH DAY

This 19th day of June is celebrated all over the USA and even the world as JUNETEENTH DAY. A description is included in Evan Rytlewski's Expressmilwaukee.com blog: Although the Emancipation Proclamation called for the liberation of confederate slaves, its effects weren’t immediate. The final slaves in Texas didn’t learn of their freedom until June 19, 1865, a full year and a half after the emancipation took effect, when the Union army rode into Galveston to enforce Abraham Lincoln’s executive order. The anniversary of June 19, or Juneteenth, has been sporadically celebrated in the south as a black independence day ever since, but the tradition never had a presence in the northern states before Margaret Hennsingsen brought it to Milwaukee in the early 1970s. More history is available from TIME. I think it is great that some communities are including Abraham Lincoln's Bicentennial as part of their celebrations. Honest Abe is one of my heroes.
I have never understood slavery. I have never understood the concept of thinking one can 'own' another human being. I have never understood racial prejudice either. Probably because I was never taught to. For this, I am eternally grateful to my parents. It is something I'll thank my Dad for on Father's Day.