Juneteenth: Day Of Commemoration And Outrage Justice First: Greenville Based SC Reparations Coalition Calls For Reparations And An End To The 13th Amendment Slavery Exception

In this “Year of Racial Reckoning,” commemoration of the Tulsa Race Massacre, and the signing of federal law making June 19th, “Juneteenth,” a federal holiday, the Malcolm X Center for Human Rights, Upstate Black Lives Matter, SC Stolen Lives Project/October 22nd Coalition, Upstate Food Not Bombs, Justice Intervention Initiative, scholars, and activists call for justice. We will stand in solidarity as and with the descendants of Africans enslaved in the United States--- survivors of unprecedented brutality and continuing discrimination, hate, and violence. We join the international campaign for Reparations and the national effort to repeal the Slavery Exception of the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

We will stand at one of Greenville South Carolina and the United States' most celebrated and protected symbols of racism/white supremacy, hate, and violence the Confederacy and the Confederate Soldier.

The rally was held at Greenville's Confederate Memorial Park and Soldier statue located at 400 N. Main Street in Greenville, SC on Saturday, June 19th, at 1:00pm. Participants converged at Springwood Cemetery Section V, African American Burial Site #30, to pour libations and lay a wreath.

“We note the lack of substance these moments have held. Bills intended to outlaw lynching, curb police brutality, and protect minority voting rights are stalled in Congress and states pass laws to limit the way teachers talk about racism. The USA still has the world's longest held political prisoner, largest prison population, and number of people on death row. Before “healing” justice must prevail.”

There were readings and summarizations of the SC Orders of Session (instigated and signed by Furman University President James Clement Furman and others which led Greenville to vote for Secession in December 1860, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863 (Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22nd, 1862.), General William T. Sherman's Field Order Number 15 awarding newly freed Afrikans “40 acres and a mule,” (https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/special-field-15/) , and the current version of House Resolution 40 (H.R.40 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Commission to Study Slavery and its continuing impact, and remediation recommendations (https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/40 ), T. Coates A Case for Reparations (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/), and Professor William Darity, What's at Stake, WPFWFM.org, (https://wpfwfm.org/radio/programming/archived-shows, Wednesday, June 16, 2021 9:00 am).

Juneteenth has been observed in Black communities for over 100 years, in Greenville for more 30 years begun by the late Hattie Cureton at the Juanita Butler Center. It is a national day of action that demands Justice, and an end to Hate and Violence in the USA.

For interviews about the event, contact Efia Nwangaza (mxcentergvl@gmail.com).