Race relations in the US and UK are persistent and seemingly intractable issues. While both countries have had admirable successes in assimilating people from broad ranges of demographic and ethnic identities, at the same time it appears that friction and conflict continue to be a perpetual challenge among different races, especially with social media and the Internet churning away.
As Christians, we have a proactive mandate to affirm the common dignity of all human beings, which dissolves demographic particularity. As the recent instruction from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, <em>Dignitas Infinita</em>, <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/editorial-the-goodness-in-dignitas-infinita-shouldnt-be-overlooked/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">has affirmed</mark></a>, “the dignity of others is to be respected in all circumstances, not because that dignity is something we have invented or imagined, but because human beings possess an intrinsic worth superior to that of material objects and contingent situations...That every human being possesses an inalienable dignity is a truth that corresponds to human nature apart from all cultural change.”<br><br><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/super-tuesday-puts-catholics-in-even-tighter-spot-can-you-vote-in-good-conscience-for-either-presidential-candidate/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">‘Super Tuesday’ puts Catholics in even tighter spot: Can you vote in good conscience for either presidential candidate?</mark></a></strong>
In the US, the month of June provides ample historical memories to reflect on the problem of race relations, as well as to think about ways to move forward. Ironically (or perhaps not), these memories are rooted in war and other kinds of violence. The US celebration of “Juneteenth”, marked by a federal holiday on the 19th, today, and the enduring legacy of Jim Crow laws, are a reminder that we Americans <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/biden-in-worse-trouble-than-trump-with-catholic-voters-especially-if-they-go-to-mass/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">still have not matched our reality with our rhetoric</mark></a>.
The American Civil War effectively ended on April 9, 1865, when Confederate General Robert E Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. But given the state of communications and the vast distances between the eastern and western war theatres, skirmishes persisted for about another month, until the last battle was fought in Texas on May 13, 1865. About a month later, on June 19, Union General Gordon Granger issued General Orders No. 3, directing the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas.
The Emancipation Proclamation had been implemented by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863 to free slaves in the southern rebel states. But of course it had been disregarded by those states while the war persisted. Now that the war had ended, Granger declared that “all slaves are free” in Texas. “This involves,” he decreed, “an absolute equality of rights, and rights of property between former master and slaves.”
As early as 1866, African Americans began to celebrate the anniversary of emancipation in Texas, using the portmanteau “Juneteenth”. The commemoration spread throughout the south, becoming an annual – but unofficial – holiday celebration for the next 160 years or so. Finally, on June 19 in 2021, Juneteenth became a federal holiday in the US, marked on the 19th of the month. The new federal holiday is a celebration of the ending of the vile institution of slavery. But it is also a reminder that much work remains in the quest for full equality of black Americans.<br><br><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/all-catholic-moral-doctrine-is-social-doctrine/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">All Catholic moral doctrine is social doctrine</mark></a></strong>
When Granger issued General Orders No. 3, he gave advice to newly-freed slaves that sounded sensible at face value. As of the date of the order, the relations between “master and slaves” shall become “that of employer and free labourer”, he wrote. “The freedmen are advised to remain at their present homes and work for wages.” While many freedmen in former slave states did precisely as advised, this effectively became the substitution of one kind of oppression for another.
Lacking basic skills, financial means or literacy, the freed slaves had little choice but to remain on the plantation. Plantation owners had no incentive to pay their former slaves beyond what the owners in turn “charged” the freedmen for room and board. In other words, nothing really changed for many former slaves after the war. They were “free”, but they were very far from equal.
In the years following Emancipation, many Southern states passed what become known as “Jim Crow” legislation. These laws and ordinances were expressly conceived and implemented to prevent slaves from full participation in the social, political and economic life of the nation. These measures did not merely create systems of segregation, which would have been wicked enough. Rather, they were official institutions of systematic oppression.
Their effect was to perpetuate a system of racist discrimination, which was enforced by widespread ruthless violence against African Americans. Jim Crow laws persisted throughout the South for 100 years, until the 1964 Civil Rights Act, outlawing discrimination in public accommodations based on (among other things) race.
Thus, while the emancipation was complete by June 19, 1865, black equality certainly was not. Noxious Jim Crow laws are now part of the sordid past in American race relations. But the legacy of 400 years of slavery, followed by 100 years of Jim Crow, have persistent residual effects in the US. One need not subscribe to the reductionist errors of critical race theory to acknowledge that those effects linger in American public life.<br><br><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/cafeteria-catholicism-and-this-years-american-election-campaigns/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">‘Cafeteria Catholicism’ and navigating the moral dilemmas of US election campaigns in 2024</mark></a></strong>
As Christians, we are obliged to affirm and defend the dignity of all human life. Juneteenth 2024 is an opportune time for we <mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-black-color">American Catholics to embrace and fulfil that obligation</mark>, working to overcome the repugnant legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
The new federal holiday is a celebration of the ending of the vile institution of slavery, but it is also a reminder that much work remains in the quest for full equality of black Americans.<br><br><em>Photo: Young cheerleaders march during the Juneteenth Parade commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, Galveston, Texas, 19 June 2021. (Photo by Go Nakamura/Getty Images.)</em><br><br><strong><strong>This article originally appeared in the June 2024 issue of the <em>Catholic Herald</em>. To subscribe to our award-winning, thought-provoking magazine and have independent and high-calibre counter-cultural Catholic journalism delivered to your door anywhere in the world click <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/subscribe/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">HERE</mark></a>.</strong></strong>
