....for a history lesson:
One week from today, Americans will mark the 155th anniversary of the day US Army General Gordon Grainger read to the people of Texas his General Order Number 3 to inform them that “in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free”.I could go on to quote the whole article, frankly. It's quite "objective" journalism, but not nearly so anodyne as the usual American product, at least when it comes to domestic politics. Other countries we could cover this way, but our own? Both-siderism is the only safe "middle" ground. They even get this right, something I haven't seen referred to since Petraeus' Atlantic article:
Grainger’s implementation of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in Texas on June 19, 1865 did not end all slavery in the United States. That day would come roughly six months later when the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution came into force. But since 1865, June 19 — the day the last persons enslaved by the defeated Confederacy gained their freedom — has been a celebrated one in African American communities across the United States.
One week from today, Donald Trump plans to mark that anniversary by delivering a speech on race relations in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where 99 years ago, what was then the wealthiest black community in the country was destroyed in what is still the worst instance of racial violence in American history.
Perhaps in hopes of recapturing the spirit of his initial rise to political prominence — which was based on his promotion of the baseless theory that the first African American President of the United States was not a US citizen and therefore illegitimate — Trump has even adopted the rhetoric of the Confederate “lost cause” by declaring that he will veto the annual National Defense Authorization Act if it includes provisions to strip the names of Confederate generals from US military installations.Honestly, how else would you explain it? (And I double-dog dare Trump to veto the authorization bill.)
BTW:
The New York Times now recognizes Juneteenth.— Kwame Opam (@kwameopam) June 12, 2020
Huh.
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