“It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces towards East or West; but it is righteousness to believe in Allah and the Last Day, and the Angels, and the Book, and the Messengers; to spend of your substance, out of love for Him, for your kin, for orphans, for the needy, for the wayfarer, for those who ask, and for the ransom of slaves; to be steadfast in prayer, and practice regular charity; to fulfil the contracts which ye have made; and to be firm and patient, in pain (or suffering) and adversity, and throughout all periods of panic. Such are the people of truth, the righteous who reverence Allah.” Qur’an, chapter 2, verse 177
On July 4, 1776, as the Founding Fathers proudly signed The Declaration of Independence at the Continental Congress that declared the thirteen American colonies independent from Great Britain, the potential of this declaration was not realized until June 19, 1865.
Union General Gordon Granger’s arrival in Galveston, Texas, and his issuing of General Order Number 3, which reads, in part, “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free;” it was on that day, June 19, that the Declaration of Independence’s phrase “all men are created equal” seen the light of day. Without Juneteenth, America’s Declaration of Independence is incomplete, lacking diversity and inclusion.
Thirteen years before Gordon Granger reached Galveston, our leader Frederick Douglas, on July 5, 1852, boldly identified the glaring hypocrisy of America’s claim of independence for everyone.
Speaking at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, Frederick Douglass rhetorically asked, “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?”
Douglass answered his question, “(It is) a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.”
Juneteenth is a rebirth for the Declaration of Independence as well as a reminder that America still needed a freedom movement.
Ninety-eight years later, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., declared, on Aug. 28, 1963, in his “I Have a Dream” speech, “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. This note was a promise that all men, yes, Black men as well as White men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’”
The immaturity, maybe even hypocrisy, of the Founding Fathers to proclaim that “all men are created equal” and endowed with certain unalienable (natural) rights, including “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” knowing that the children of Africa were still in bondage is a sin and a shame. Also, in the Founding Fathers’ socially immature minds, the definition of “men” did not include women of any race; it even excluded white men who did not own property — truth be told!
It was through the forces of nature, human resiliency and endurance, supported by the Will of G_d, that Juneteenth was able to give America another opportunity to fulfill the promises of the Declaration of Independence. Juneteenth represents a watershed moment in American history wherein the arrogance of white oppressors was weakened and the redemption of The Declaration of Independence was made possible.
Today, we have to continue the freedom struggle that our African American fore-parents began. We are indebted to them. They made tremendous sacrifices while facing great odds so that our lives today would be much easier, but we cannot go on vacation. The freedom struggles continues today actually more than it did in 1776, 1865 and 1963.
As Imam W. Deen Mohammed often reminded us, “We cannot stop now!”
