~JUNETEENTH A FAMOUS CELEBRATION SINCE c.1865 IN TEXAS~

CONTRARY to what the 45th President of America in 2020 says_that HE made June 19th Famous; it was President Abraham Lincoln 16th President of America in 1863 that freed the Slaves. It was NOT until 1865 that the Slaves of Texas got that message they were FREE! Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday.IT IS NOW A WORLDWIDE CELEBRATION.IT IS GOOD TO KNOW THE HISTORY OF ALL MANKIND.

For further Knowledge...this Link will help...https://www.history.com/juneteenth 

Martha and Pinkie Yates in a buggy decorated for the annual Juneteenth celebration in front 319 Robin St. in the Fourth Ward (c.1895-1905). Courtesy of Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public  

Early Celebrations 

May31-June 1,1921*** ~Remembering Greenwood Oklahoma Massacre of an All Black Community~

           ~FLASHBACK~ 

In these days of Social-Distancing, a Friend CHALLEGED me to list the top 10 Albums that influenced my taste in Music. My First thought_well this SHOULD be a piece of Cake. Wrong! Today was Day 9. I posted: 

DAY 9 Album Challenge...The Gap Band...The Gap Band was an American R&B and funk band that rose to fame during the 1970s and 1980s. The band consisted of three brothers Charlie, Ronnie, and Robert Wilson; and it was named after streets (Greenwood, Archer, and Pine = GAP)_ in the historic ~GREENWOOD~ neighborhood in the brothers' hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. GREENWOOD WAS BURNED DOWN BY WHITE PROTESTORS May 31 & June 1, 1921, when mobs of WHITE RESIDENTS attacked Black residents and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. "Early in the Morning" was my Exercise Routine dance song of which I still remember the moves! 

                                                     OFFICIAL VIDEO...1982
Note: I love the girl in Yellow Exercise tights...that would be me. lol 

Anyway...
It dawned on me that 99 years ago TODAY...May31-June 1,1921 _A White MOB burned down Greenwood Black Community. The event remains one of the worst incidents of racial violence in U.S. history, and one of the least-known: News reports were largely squelched, despite the fact that hundreds of people were killed and thousands left homeless. 

  

BACKSTORY:
On May 30, 1921, a young black teenager named Dick Rowland entered an elevator at the Drexel Building, an office building on South Main Street. At some point after that, the young white elevator operator, Sarah Page, screamed; Rowland fled the scene. The police were called, and the next morning they arrested Rowland.......AFTERMATH...In the hours after the Tulsa Race Massacre, all charges against Dick Rowland were dropped. 

For decades, there were no public ceremonies, memorials for the dead or any efforts to commemorate the events of May 31-June 1, 1921. Instead, there was a deliberate effort to cover them up.

The Tulsa Tribune removed the front-page story of May 31 that sparked the chaos from its bound volumes, and scholars later discovered that police and state militia archives about the riot were missing as well. As a result, until recently the Tulsa Race Massacre was rarely mentioned in history books, taught in schools or even talked about. Source:https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/tulsa-race-massacre

Further Sources: James S. Hirsch, Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2002).

Scott Ellsworth, “Tulsa Race Riot,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.
1921 Tulsa Race Riot, Tulsa Historical Society & Museum.
Nour Habib, “Teachers talk about how black history is being taught in Oklahoma schools today,” Tulsa World (February 24, 2015).
Sam Howe Verhovek, “75 Years Later, Tulsa Confronts Its Race Riot,” New York Times (May 31, 1996).

FAST FORWARD MAY 2020 

George Floyd: US cities brace for new protests after another night of violence....

George Floyd protests spread globally while China reacts.... 

But, this says it all (Quote)... 

Hua Chunying, a "Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman", pointed out America’s racial unrest by tweeting ~“I can’t breathe,”~ which Floyd said before his death. 

All this + COVID-19 PANDEMIC..."I Can't Breathe" either. Guess, I just listen to the GAP BAND...sigh!