Juneteenth is a celebration of ethnic harmony
Juneteenth marks the moment when Union troops reached Galveston, Texas, and liberated the last remaining enslaved Black Americans from their chains of slavery.
As Black Americans across the country celebrate Juneteenth with friends, family and loved ones, we celebrate the magnificent achievement that could only be possible in our beloved homeland.
As many of you may know, Juneteenth – sometimes called "America’s second Independence Day" – marks the moment when Union troops reached Galveston, Texas, and finally liberated the last remaining enslaved Black Americans from their chains of slavery.
Every leap toward freedom should be celebrated in every generation, decade and era. Some people ask why Juneteenth is necessary and suggest that it stirs up old wounds. Nothing could be further from the truth. Juneteenth celebrates the victory of emancipation in the United States of America.
In many ways, our development of ethnic harmony reminds me of the Book of Galatians: "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all on in Christ Jesus."
The Bible teaches us that by God’s grace, we are all one — and I think that America’s founding principles of liberty and equality offer that same message. As our Declaration of Independence says, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness..."
My uncle, Martin Luther King Jr., knew how significant this proclamation was; in his famed "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he said that when the "architects of our republic" wrote the "magnificent words" of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were "signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir." He went on to say that this note was "a promise that all men — yes, Black men as well as white men — would be guaranteed the unalienable rights" that are enshrined in our founding documents.
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But compare these messages to the many voices of division we hear in popular culture today. From the media and entertainment to politics and education, we are constantly reminded of our differences. We are divided along the lines of race, class, sex, faith and even political persuasion. These voices pit us against each other and tell us that we should be each other’s enemies.
It hasn’t always been easy, but through the sacrifice of Civil Rights heroes like my uncle, equality under the law has finally been achieved. Juneteenth is a historically significant day because I believe in the adage: If you don’t learn your history, you will be doomed to repeat it.
Let’s use this Juneteenth as a chance to strive to hold onto the good and correct the bad. The goal for humanity should be to learn to live together as brothers and sisters in Christ because if we cannot learn to do so, as the Bible teaches, we will indeed perish as fools.
Juneteenth provides us with the perfect opportunity to reflect on this Christian principle of ethnic harmony. While we certainly have more work to do in our everyday lives, we should also use this day to look back on the progress that we have made and celebrate with joy the blessings that America has brought to all of God’s children.
We are the one-blood human race, united as children of our shared Creator.
