I went to the drive-thru window of my local Chase Bank to make a deposit earlier today. After waiting a few minutes for a teller to appear, it finally dawned on me that the bank was closed because of the Juneteenth holiday, the commemoration of the day slavery officially ended in the Texas.
My bad. Juneteenth is a worthy national observance, for too long—decades upon decades—celebrated predominantly only in African-American communities. As our country is currently under stress from assaults on the truthful, more compleat history of our treatment of minority communities, it is noteworthy that Juneteenth has achieved national recognition.
I consider my education to be top notch. But like so many schooled during the 1950s and 1960s, the full spectrum of American history was not always present in the classroom. I cannot recall ever hearing about the significance of June 19, 1865, when blacks in Galveston, Texas, learned their enslavement was over.
Nor did I learn about the riot and massacre in Tulsa May 31-June 1, 1921, that destroyed what had been called the Black Wall Street.
And, though Woodrow Wilson is hailed as a progressive world leader for his advocacy of a Fourteen Point peace plan following World War I, my history lessons did not include any mention of his racism. I had been taught his jobs before becoming president were as president of Princeton University and governor of New Jersey. His pedigree as a racist was honed during his upbringing in Virginia. After he became our 28 president he gutted representation of blacks within the federal civil service, effectively diminishing a thriving African-American middle class, and he segregated our military.
Our collective history owes a great deal to the contributions of the once-enslaved. Enslaved Africans taught South Carolina landowners how to cultivate rice. Rice became a key cash crop export known as Carolina Gold from the colony to Europe.
Our national culture venerates the cowboy. Yet little pride is cast toward Buffalo Soldiers, the name given to African-American cavalry troops who helped pacify the westward expansion of mostly white settlers.
Too many present day politicians and special interest groups are stirring up emotions by railing against “wokeness.” They want to cancel historical facts.
Our future prosperity as a nation depends upon full recognition of the contributions of all minorities and the dark episodes of our past become learning points for tolerance.
