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56 GUIDE TO YELLOW SPR INGS | 2021– 2022 celebrations, so Black people bought their own land so that they could celebrate June- teenth,” he said. Emancipation Park in Hous- ton, Texas, for example, was purchased in 1872 for that purpose. It’s the oldest park in the state of Texas. McGruder said that as the generation of Black Ameri- cans who were born into slavery died, Juneteenth cel- ebrations fell out of favor, but during the Civil Rights era, they enjoyed a revival. Now, it’s celebrated worldwide, and on June 17, 2021, Juneteenth was officially named a federal holiday. Yellow Springs pre-empted the federal government in January of 2021, however, when Village Council passed a resolution recognizing June- teenth as an official holiday and adopting it as a paid holiday for Village employees. Village Council Member Kevin Stokes, who introduced the resolution, said 2021 felt like the right time to acknowledge the celebration on a local government level. “There’s been a growing momentum with racial reck- oning, and last year [during the pandemic] was almost a missing year, so it also feels like a chance to play catch-up,” he said. “Declaring [Juneteenth] as a holiday is primarily ceremonial ... but really this is a celebration — of Black people and people of color, freedom from the pan- demic, and an acknowledg- ment of keeping hope alive.” Though Juneteenth became increasingly visible as a holiday in 2021 after its national rec - ognition, misunderstandings about the complex history of slavery persist in the U.S. McGruder, who co-authored “Emancipation Proclamation: Forever Free” in 2013 for the 150th anniversary of the proclamation, dispelled the commonly accepted narra- tive that the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln instantly freed all the slaves. “During the war, Lin- coln had no power to free anybody [in the Confederate states],” McGruder said. “But it did inspire enslaved people to seek their own freedom.” McGruder explained that the proclamation only allowed for the freedom of those enslaved in Confed- erate states as of Jan. 1, 1863 — this did not include those enslaved in Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland and Missouri. Furthermore, since the Confederate states did not accept the authority of the Union government, the executive order couldn’t be enforced in those areas. After the Confederacy surrendered on April 9, 1865, and the Civil War ended, Black Ameri- cans in the former Confeder- ate states, including Texas, were, by Lincoln’s order, no longer enslaved. Those enslaved in states not in the Confederacy would have to wait until December of that year for their official free- dom, when the 13th Amend- ment abolishing slavery was ratified. When asked about June- teenth’s history and why and how an entire state’s worth of enslaved people were kept in the dark about their freedom, McGruder said there’s no mystery to consider. “I don’t think it requires a complex theory — slavery made a lot of money,” he said. “The information was withheld intentionally. It was about money and it was about violence. I think it’s an example of the intractable nature of white supremacy.” “If we can understand that, then we can understand why Black people have had to fight so hard for equality.” ♦ Continued from page 55 WELCOME HOME. Jo Dunphy, Broker ..................................................937-767-1140 Sheila Dunphy-Pallotta, Broker ..........................937-767-2100 Teresa Dunphy, Rentals & Property Mgr/Broker...... 937-767-1140 LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED SINCE 1960 937-767-1140 DunphyRealEstate.com 251 Xenia Avenue,Yellow Springs, OH