 Martha Yates Jones (left) and Pinkie Yates (right), daughters of Rev. Jack Yates, in a decorated carriage parked in front of the Antioch Baptist Church located in Houston's Fourth Ward, 1908 (Credit: The African American Library at The Gregory School, Houston Public Library  Group of men in Civil War uniforms, likely for a re-enactment of the Union’s entry into Galveston. Photograph by Grace Murray Stephenson of Juneteenth celebrations in Eastwoods Park, Austin, 1900. (Credit: Austin History Center PICA 05484B) Juneteenth is not a gift. Juneteenth is earned. Juneteenth is recognition. Juneteenth is determination. Juneteenth embraces the souls of Black folk. Juneteenth honors our blues and jazz, and the spirit of Jimi Hendrix, too. Juneteenth is Cassius Clay’s metamorphosis into Muhammad Ali. Juneteenth voices our collective, unyielding humanity. Juneteenth reminds us, in the words of Tony Award-winning actor André De Shields, that the top of one mountain is the bottom of the next. (“So keep climbing,” De Shields says.) Juneteenth tells us that we ain’t really free ‘til all of us ‘n nem is free. Juneteenth is an Independence Day-Memorial Day* – two of our most sacred holidays – remix. “Black people created what we might call freedom in America today,” wrote history scholar Daina Ramey Berry, in her essay The Truth About Black Freedom. “That is the story we celebrate and uplift on this holiday.” So, remember Juneteenth. Always. (c) Bob Campbell/bobcampbellwrites.com *The first-known Memorial Day commemoration was organized by a group of Black people freed from enslavement a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David W. Blight. Excerpt from The First Decoration Day:
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 A gift from my father, given to me not long after Wanda and I moved into our current home; stored on the top shelf in my garage. Loud. Powerful. Capable. A Craftsman. This circular saw has been especially useful over the years. Of course, I haven’t given this tool -- nor the one he owned prior -- nearly the workout that my father did in the years before he bequeathed it to me. But from sawing the lumber I used to build Jonathan’s playset to installing laminate wood flooring in a bedroom to odd repair jobs and school projects, it’s been there for me whenever I needed it. Just like he was. Happy Father's Day, Big Guy.
 The family cottage he built at Shay Lake under construction in 1958. |
AuthorBob Campbell, an essayist and novelist, likes his bourbon neat. His debut novel, Motown Man, was published by Urban Farmhouse Press in November 2020. Archives
February 2023
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