Juneteenth (Freedom Day)

By

Robert A. Jackson, Jr.

I’ve noticed over the years that as long as the status quo is followed, no one has an issue with you. But if you challenge the validity of how those in power handle the humanity others, you become a disruptor to their plans to mistreat others.

I find it interesting how those in power (who make it their business to mistreat others for clout) deem it necessary to find their dissenters and put them under surveillance the same way that Hoover used COINTELPRO to silence those who were trying to survive the harsh laws of this country during his lifetime.

One is the model Christian, model church member, model family member, model employee, model student, and model citizen as long as they do not challenge the authority’s decision making when it comes to loving neighbors. I say this because don’t we pride ourselves on being a “Christian Nation?” If that is the case, I wonder why there is a continued history of leaders that have developed laws, created harmful content, and regurgitated rhetoric that has not only sought to divide but also to suppress the God given rights of others. However, even though these leaders are no different from the evil rulers that we read about from the literature of antiquity (including the Bible), these men are revered and worshiped as demigods, even by so-called Christians. 

But in the current society, if the rhetoric, laws, and policies of these idolatrously worshiped demigods are challenged, the challenger is labeled as being “Woke”, a troublemaker, a leftist, and a radical liberal. While in public schools as a young person, I learned that it was important to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Currently, leaders (political, educational, and religious) are using these same schools to teach propaganda infused half-truths and sometimes downright lies to further their agendas to stay in power. Education is an important component of informing or controlling the masses.

While there are several agendas that are seeking to spread in schools and churches around this country, we have to be mindful of whether or not they are seeking to suppress and silence the humanity of others. Education should be a catalyst to remove the veil of ignorance from the minds of people. But this country has (as many before it) a history of using education as a weapon to control the minds of its citizens. Those of us who seek to tell the rest of the story to ensure that we learn from our ugly history, are labeled and watched so that informants can report back to those who believe they control us.

On this Juneteenth (Freedom Day), while we celebrate the Freedom of our ancestors in Texas (who were the last enslaved people from the CSA), we are mindful that there were ancestors in Kentucky and Delaware that were still enslaved until December 1865.

I speak on behalf of Jackson Marsh. He is my oldest known ancestor that I have been able to find to date. He was born to a mother from South Carolina and a father from Virginia. Jackson Marsh (My 3rd Great-Grandfather) was born in Alabama in 1813. I don’t know when he died, but I do know that he was alive during the 1900 Census in Giles County, Tennessee. To those who want to erase history, I want you to know that while you want to seek to suppress history to avoid the heaviness of the ugliness towards my enslaved ancestors, I honor his memory and the lives of those who endured the atrocities forced upon them during this bleak time in this country.

I write this blog post as an act of resistance so the reader can see a glimpse of the paradox that many who look like me live in today. Even though I am a proponent for the humanity of all, I will continue the Freedom Fight to help those who have yet to learn that some leaders use religion, education, and politics to physically, mentally, socially, physiologically, theologically, and economically enslave the masses.