“In accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor,”
Those are words from executive orders number 3, spoken by
Union General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865 in Galveston Texas. Despite the
Civil War being over, and despite the Emancipation Proclamation going into
effect January 1 of 1883 and though the Civil War had been over for more than
two months, Texas missed the memo.
Granger and his 2,000
Union troops has made their notch in American history and today the sons and daughters
of former slaves celebrate Juneteenth as the day of freedom; free from bondage,
free from oppression, and from inequality.
However, over a century later, slavery has been replaced
with a veil of bondage, oppression, and inequality through our prisons, our
school systems, and crony capitalism.
Therefore, generations later, we have yet to be free; we
have yet to truly gain the ability to live our dream. We kill each other, we destroy our will, our
spirit, and we have abandoned our past under false pretenses of salvation.
That is why 50 years after the height of the Civil Rights
movement, we must empower our brothers and sisters, demand peace in our
neighborhoods, seek true justice in those we have chosen to protect, serve and
govern our communities, and empower our brothers and sisters with the knowledge
of self.
The Urban Peace Justice and Empowerment movement aims to
finally bring equality to those who became free January 1 1883 by acknowledging
our streets need healing, our bodies need cleansing, and souls must be submissive
to something bigger than ourselves.
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