What does June 19, 1865 mean to me as an African American who understands the struggles of our race in this nation? Not a damn thing. Why should it have a meaning because it enforces a lie that freedom and jubilee somehow occurred when the news finally arrived in Galveston,  Texas that slavery ended when Robert E. Lee’s Army of the Virginia surrendered to Ulysses Grant’s troops at the Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia, on April 9, 1865. Slavery didn’t end on January 1, 1963 with the Emancipation Proclamation. Nor did slavery end when the states of the new Post Civil War Union ratified the 13th Amendment on December 6, 1865. Slavery certainly did end on June 19, 1865 with the celebration of Juneteenth. 

When we allow ourselves to buy into that lie. We now ignore the reality that a more virulent form of slavery was implemented across America in the form of Jim Crow slavery. This slavery stole our ancestors lives,stole our ancestors wealth, and created two distinct America’s one was white and prosperous and the other was a black America still chained in bigotry and chains. So, when I hear political parties saying they will make Juneteenth a National Holiday. I cringe because this does no justice to our ancestors who suffered blatant racism, murderous violence, and economic oppression for a century after our supposed day of jubilee. Don’t give me factious holiday. Cut ten’s of millions of checks on June 19. Then we can celebrate. Otherwise, know this I and others like me know savagery of the oppression our ancestors faced after June 19, 1865. So simply to this give our communities the reparations we deserve.

Anthem Written For Who?

The song, that song, it's not our song

It hasn't ever been our song, that song

The song, that song, it's not our song

Written when we all were shackled 

Now you want us to sing it while being tackled

Forced us to sing while we were shackled 

Will those invisible bars ever be unshackled

The song, that song, it's not our song

Written by a man who hated

Never had thought one single thought that didn’t have black people berated

His hatred of blacks was so clearly stated

The song, that song, it's not our song

So whether or not we stay standing or seated

That song still signifies us being mistreated

I guess that's why so many of us stay seated

So tell me again you are denying that blacks are still being mistreated

The song, that song, it's not our song

You, not I, call it our national anthem

You see when this nation chose it, the our twilight was damn near midnight 

And gleaming was happening while white men were scheming 

This nation took four centuries to outlaw lynching 

Because lynching black men had Francis Scott Key beaming

So you want us all to stand yet you sell bigotry in our black community 

When your police officers count our dead bodies by the pound

So tell me again why should act patriotic

When you continue to maim and kill us like a crazed psychotic

The song, that song, it's not our song

It hasn't ever been our song, that song

The song, that song, it's not our song 

You try to burn the love of nation from our ancestors

Put us on stakes for white mobs to see killing us while you celebrated jubilantly

So it’s time for that song, your song, not mine song to go

It celebrates way too many white crimes on me

You see at the end of the day there is no way

That Francis Scott Key ever intended that song to be sung by people like me

The Black Blogger, Joseph S. Hall

#reparationist

Dr. Kelly Miller was born on July 23, 1863, and he died 76 years later on December 29, 1939. Dr.Kelly Miller was an America mathematician, sociologist, essayist, newspaper columnist, author, and an important figure in the intellectual life of black America for close to half a century. He was known as "the Bard of the Potomac". Dr. Kelly Miller was instrumental in creating Howard University’s College of Arts and Science. He was a powerful intellectual force, whose words often spoke truth to power. The following is an excellent example of Dr. Miller’s insight on the conditions that African Americans faced after the Civil War, Black Reconstruction, and the infamous Jim Crow barriers created by federal, state, and municipal governments to oppress our ancestors. For far too long the African American population has been excoriated from the table of opportunity in this nation. As Howard University professor Kelly Miller stated with a profoundly provoking thought in the United States the negro pays for what he or she needs and begs for what he or she begs fruitlessly those essential needs demanded by a society to produce an ample quality of life.

• African Americans would never be allowed to fully gain a foothold in this nation. Because this nation has determined that our ancestors climb upwards to some defined level of equality would never materialize. Our ancestors were forced to pay higher prices for the wants needed to exist. Then, when we reached any level of proficiency in life the needs necessary to boost our positions were denied. These acts of economic and political illegitimacy were forced upon our ancestors by both political parties. That’s why now after four centuries we can longer accept anything less than concrete tangibles that are due because of that oppression. That is why I have decided to create the #reparationist movement. Because only through reparations can we as an African American community be made hold. Join me. I have trademarked the word and I hope that this mobilization will make one of reparationists following the dictates of the ADOS MODEL.