Juneteenth

June 19, or Juneteenth, is Independence Day for many Americans of African descent.

Also known as Emancipation Day or Freedom Day, it commemorates the end of slavery, the seminal event in African-American history.

President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation took effect on Jan. 1, 1863, but the word did not spread instantly. According to one account, the Emancipation Proclamation was read to slaves in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, more than two years after it officially went into effect. As word of the end of slavery spread, Juneteenth was created to commemorate that day.

There are several different accounts of why the news of freedom took so long to arrive.

One story has it that slaves were intentionally kept ignorant about their freedom in order to allow crops to continue being harvested.

Another has one messenger traveling by mule to deliver the news, and it simply took more than two years to arrive from Washington D.C., to Texas.

Yet another story has the messenger being murdered before he could deliver the message.

No matter the origin of Juneteenth, the end of slavery is definitely worth celebrating.

And while much has happened in the nearly 150 years since slavery officially ended, its legacies still remain in the form of disparate salaries, educational levels and incarceration rates.

Juneteenth, which is now observed in 36 states and the District of Columbia, is a time to take stock of our progress — and of the work that remains.

Last year, for Juneteenth, President Obama said: “African Americans helped to build our nation brick by brick and have contributed to her growth in every way, even when rights and liberties were denied to them.”

We’re still building it.

Happy Juneteenth.

Obama, McCain should support same-sex marriage

By Akilah Monifa, October 20, 2008

Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain see eye to eye on one issue: same-sex marriage. They’re both opposed.

They should have met Del Martin.

For 55 years, she and Phyllis Lyon were partners. Together, they helped establish the nation's first lesbian rights organization, the Daughters of Bolitis, back in 1955.

Martin and Lyon were the first couple to be married in the city of San Francisco in 2004 and again in the state of California on June 16, 2008. Martin died two months later, on Aug. 27. She was 87.

Neither Obama nor McCain has offered a rational, secular reason why these two women should not have married each other.

Lyon is eligible for California state benefits of inheritance and insurance but is denied over 1,000 federally granted benefits, including Social Security.

But now the citizens of California may posthumously annul their marriage. Same-sex marriage in California is in jeopardy because of a proposition on the Nov. 4 ballot that aims to overrule the California Supreme Court's recent granting of the right of all to marry. Same-sex marriage is also legal in Massachusetts, as well as Connecticut, after the state Supreme Court ruling there on Oct. 3.

On such a civil rights issue, I would have hoped that the presidential candidates would have taken a stand.

Instead, they ducked it, even though they made comments that seemed to recognize the validity of same-sex relationships. In his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Obama said regardless of how folks feel about same-sex marriage, there is universal agreement on allowing visitation rights in a hospital and not discriminating against gays and lesbians.

McCain has echoed this, as did Sen. Joe Biden and even Gov. Sarah Palin in the vice presidential debate.

Del Martin spent her life fighting for equality. Early on, she understood the parallels between discrimination against blacks and discrimination against gays and lesbians. And she opposed all discrimination.

I’m confident that had Obama or McCain known her, they would have come around on this issue.

Our sons and daughters should be eligible for the full slate of state and federal rights should they chose to marry.

Del Martin’s dream should become reality.