MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” recognized Juneteenth this year by speaking with legendary American civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton, who advised wisdom and reflection at a time when “history is being challenged” in the United States.
Officially recognized as a federal holiday in 2021, Juneteenth celebrates June 19, 1865, when American Major General Gordon Granger orchestrated the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas around the end of the Civil War. Recognizing this, Sharpton told “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, “I think that as we are going to celebrate this holiday, we should also take a real measure of where we are.”
“The fact of the matter is that those in Texas who were enslaved knew nothing about the Emancipation Proclamation, knew nothing about freedom. Those that were freed on that day of Jan. 1, 1863, [when] Lincoln signed were in the Confederate States, not the Free States,” Sharpton explained. “Those slaves in the Free States weren’t freed until the 13th Amendment. Even then, people in Texas weren’t freed until General Granger came in [on] this day in 1865 and let them know they were free.”
“All of this is 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 is healthy, not only for those of us [who] are the ones that have ancestors that were enslaved. It’s not healthy for the country to show the progress this country made in fighting slavery — of instituting the Emancipation Proclamation.”
“[Juneteenth] should be a way of us saying that we should continue to grow together, rather than to try to eliminate the story from being told,” Sharpton concluded. You can watch the “Morning Joe” segment yourself in the video below.
In response to Sharpton’s comments, Scarborough mentioned 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 that we’re challenged, and if we study history, we know there’s always been one or two steps forward, then a push back,” Sharpton replied.
The activist and Baptist minister said he remembered the fallout of the shooting in Charleston “like it was yesterday” and reflected on how America responded to that tragedy. “We saw the country start dealing with race, then again with George Floyd. But now we’re seeing the setback,” Sharpton noted. “I think that, if we understand our history, we know it’s always going to be one or two steps forward, one backward. We’ve got to keep going and we have to do it together.”
