Juneteenth art for celebration in Galveston, Texas.

The following is presented in honor of Juneteenth, the traditional commemoration of the celebration that dates back to  June19, 1865, when African-American slaves in Galveston, Texas, learned for the first time about the Emancipation Proclamation that had been issued to free them two years earlier. They  decided that was a very good reason for a party and generations have kept it going every year since. 

 If there is such a thing as healing wounds from the past by applying acts of grace in the present, it may be possible that people in the United States are becoming more and more proficient at it, an idea strongly reinforced by the 44th Annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee observed earlier this year in Selma, Alabama. Many are in fact convinced that the election of Barack Obama to the presidency was a kind of redeeming act of grace in partial atonement for America's apartheid sins of the past, and the Pulitzer Prize awarded Douglas A. Blackmon for Slavery by Another Name provides additional groundwork to build upon such a notion. 

The rural township of Selma's most inglorious Civil Rights moment came when voting rights advocates planned a 50-mile march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, starting out at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, to protest the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was killed while defending his mother against attacking state troopers during a voting rights demonstration. That particular chapter of Selma's past has been well documented in books like Selma, Lord, Selma, by Sheyann Webb and Rachel West Nelson, which also spawned a Disney movie of the same name.

Black and white citizens of Selma dedicated themselves to the creation of a more positive chapter in the city's history with the inaugural service for the Selma Community Church pastored by the newly-appointed Rev. Ronald Smith, on March 8, 2009. With Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's classic "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" booming out of the speaker system, followed by the Edwin Hawkins Singers' "Oh Happy Day," it was clear from the beginning that this occasion was dedicated not only to discussing change but demonstrating it.

 "As a young black man living in Selma, Alabama, I can truly celebrate Jubilee with you and say Dr. King's dream has come alive in my life," said the 2009 Jonathan Daniels Youth Award winner, Jarvis Cleveland, sharing his reflections on the event. "His dream is still alive today. Dr. King may have only gotten to the mountain top, but I am now walking in that Promised Land that he spoke of."

Rev. Mark Duke, president of the Freedom Foundation, underscored Cleveland's remarks with the powerful declaration that the new church was, "The only integrated church in Selma." He also drew on the past to emphasize the significance of the present. "Forty-four years ago today, there was a small group of African-Americans that crossed that  bridge, but today there's not just African Americans crossing that bridge , there's white folks crossing that bridge too. We're with you!"

That message was received by more than just the congregation and a youth choir that repeatedly drew thunderous applause for its enthusiastic performances. Bus loads of visitors--many of them members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)--had arrived at the church from Georgia and other neighboring states.  Others had flown in from an even further distances. Among the attendees was author Sheyann Webb, who spoke of meeting King when she was a child and who, repeatedly, cautioned everyone that having a black president in the White House, "doesn't necessarily mean our marching days are over."

In humorous, yet sobering, contrast to the exuberant singing of the youth choir and the message of arrival presented by others on the program, SCLC President Rev. Byron Clay began his presentation by "confessing" that he was not fond of going to church because too many church-goers were prone to professing love for Jesus Christ while "hating you at the same time."

"You can stick a chicken in the oven but that don't make it a biscuit," he pointed out to emphasize that attending church did not necessarily make people Christians. "You can park an elephant in a garage but that don't make it an automobile." He clarified his statements by noting that he did enjoy "worship" and stating that what he had witnessed in the Selma Community Church that morning was a rare example of true worship that provided a small glimpse into the kind of theocratic society that would characterize life in higher spheres.

Several nights prior to the inaugural service, on Thursday, March 5, Clay had addressed a welcome reception at Selma's Performing Arts Center. On the same evening, President Barack Obama's former pastor Dr. Jeremiah Wright spoke at the Tabernacle Baptist Church on the traditions of liberation and prophetic theology in the black church.  Central to Wright's presentation, and in stark contrast to the overexposed volatile remarks that cast him into the national spotlight, was his emphasis on "the nonnegotiable doctrine of reconciliation."

"Reconciliation does not mean that blacks become whites or whites become blacks and Hispanics become Asian or that Asians become Europeans. Reconciliation means we embrace our individual rich histories, all of them. We retain who we are as persons of different cultures, while acknowledging that those of other cultures are not superior or inferior to us. They are just different from us. We root out any teaching of superiority, inferiority, hatred, or prejudice." 

For part two of A Juneteenth Special: Remembrance and Healing in America please click here: http://redroom.com/blog/aberjhani/part-2-a-juneteenth-special-healing-and-remembrance-america

by Aberjhani