MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” acknowledged Juneteenth this year by speaking with legendary American civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton, who counseled wisdom and reflection at a time when “history is being challenged” in the United States.
Officially recognized as a federal holiday in 2021, Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when U.S. Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger orchestrated the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas around the end of the Civil War. Acknowledging this, Sharpton told “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, “I think as we celebrate this holiday, we should also take a real measure of where we are.”
“The fact is that the people in Texas who were enslaved didn’t know anything about the Emancipation Proclamation, they didn’t know anything about freedom. Those who were freed on that day, January 1, 1863, [when] Lincoln signed the Confederate States, not the free states,” Sharpton explained. “Those slaves in the free states weren’t freed until the 13th Amendment. Even so, the people in Texas weren’t freed until General Granger came in [on] that day, in 1865, and informed them that they were free.”
“This is all American history, and certainly history for African Americans,” he continued. “History is being challenged to be taught in certain schools under this administration, and some states are trying to eliminate [it]. I don’t think that’s healthy, not just for those of us [who] are the ones who have ancestors who were enslaved. It’s not healthy for the country to show the progress that this country has made in the fight against slavery — from instituting the Emancipation Proclamation.”
“[Juneteenth] should be a way of saying that we should continue to grow together, rather than trying to eliminate the story from being told,” Sharpton concluded. You can watch the “Morning Joe” segment in the video below.
In response to Sharpton’s comments, Scarborough brought up the recent 10-year anniversary of the horrific anti-Black mass shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, in June 2015, and asked Sharpton how America should continue to move forward as a united country. “I think we’re challenged, and if we study history, we know there’s always been a step or two forward, then a push back,” Sharpton responded.
The Baptist minister and activist said he remembered the aftermath of the Charleston shooting “like it was yesterday” and reflected on how America responded to the tragedy. “We saw the country start to deal with race, then again with George Floyd. But now we’re seeing the backlash,” Sharpton noted. “I think if we understand our history, we know it’s always going to be one or two steps forward, one step back. We have to keep going, and we have to do it together.”
