Today, June 19, 2020, Juneteenth to many, is the 155th anniversary of the official end of slavery in the U.S. thanks to the efforts and determination of a Republican presidential leader, Abe Lincoln. 

Juneteenth (short for "June Nineteenth") marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The troops' arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday.

Confederate General Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox Court House two months earlier in Virginia, but slavery had remained relatively unaffected in Texas — until U.S. General Gordon Granger stood on Texas soil and read General Orders No. 3: "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free."

The Emancipation Proclamation 

The Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, had established that all enslaved people in Confederate states in rebellion against the Union "shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free."  (snip)

After the war came to a close in the spring of 1865, General Granger's arrival in Galveston that June signaled freedom for Texas's 250,000 slaves. Although emancipation didn't happen overnight for everyone — in some cases, slave owners withheld the information until after harvest season — celebrations broke out among newly freed black people, and Juneteenth was born. That December, slavery in America was formally abolished with the adoption of the 13th Amendment.

So how are Virginia Democrats honoring this auspicious occasion?  Inviting their governor, Ralph Northam, a Democrat, who chose to proudly pose for his medical school graduation yearbook photo in grinning blackface next to a friend draped in...Ku Klux Klan robes, to speak at their virtual convention.  Oh, sure, in those unenlightened pre-woke days of a year and a half ago he was asked to resign after a few busybodies complained, but a quickie apology did the trick, and lo! just like that, Northam was acceptable to Virginia Democrats.  Now he'll headline their local convention.  

But hey, all is good, because as Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic party leader and therefore an authority on all things pertaining to black individuals, definitively informed a black audience, if you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't black."

So white skin privileged Democrats are still defining what black people can do, still controlling how they vote.  Uhm, isn't that called...slavery?

For real freedom for all, get your tickets for President Trump (R)'s rally the next day, Saturday, June 20,2020, in Tulsa, Okla.  The socially distanced crowds eagerly await your arrival.  

Happy Juneteenth, all.