Freedom is not free (Happy Juneteenth)

Dock workers in Galveston, Texas, 1863.

When I was in the 3rd grade, I remember one particular evening my dad asked me what I had

learned in school that day. I thought his question was a test of me, not a test of the Philadelphia public school system.

I proudly told my father I learned that President Abraham Lincoln was my friend because he

freed the slaves with a presidential order called the Emancipation Proclamation. I let my dad

know that it was because of this heroic president that we were all free and could do anything in America. Lincoln went to war to free us from people who looked like him.

RUDE AWAKENING

My father frowned and said, “It is not that simple.” Never finishing his dinner that night, he got up from the table and began pulling a series of writings, articles, and books that filled in the

redacted areas my teacher’s Civil War lesson left out.

Can you imagine my ignorance? His 8 year old child was telling him about his freedom in

America. Born in 1924, while living in Alabama, he was never able to vote there, drink from any water fountain unless it was labeled “colored” or even order some fries and just sit and eat them. My father had seen men hang from trees for being outspoken. He witnessed grown men who were husbands and fathers, reduced to boys, afraid to look any white man in the eye. And here I was telling him about his freedom he had not accessed yet. He moved from Alabama to Philadelphia in 1952. While lynching's were not ever present in Philadelphia, there was over reaching of police, redlining since the 1930’s and black people living in the worse tenements. In the south a black man (or boy) could be killed if someone said he looked at a white woman. In the north, he could be jailed for associating with white women (like Malcolm X). So there was down south and there was up south. Brother Malcolm said if you were not living in Canada, you were living in the south.

“Lincoln was not your or my friend or the friend of any black person,” my dad said in a calm but stern tone. (For all of you scholars who know all of this, walk with me. I have some comparisons to make later.)

Not only was Lincoln not our friend, a large number of Americans 100 years later still did not

believe all people were created equal, especially black people. In an interview with Dr. Martin

Luther King, a woman, asked King if wanting equal rights was asking for too much too quickly. And even now, 160 years later, many white Americans do not believe African Americans should have equal lives here.

The night I proclaimed Lincoln’s protection for black people was the night I learned the original Emancipation Proclamation was written in 1862 and finalized in 1863. That Proclamation allowed slave owners who wanted to stay in the Union, to keep their slaves. Delaware, Maryland, Tennessee, and Kentucky could do business as usual.

It was only the states that wanted to have their own country, the Confederates, that were now

supposed to give up their slaves. Those were many Sotherns which encompassed some of

Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas.

It hit me hard, as an 8 year old, that my friend, President Lincoln, in writing declared he was

interested in preserving The Union, not my ancestors’ freedom. That if he could have preserved the union and kept the slaves, he would have.

THE FACTS

On April 9th of 1865, the help of 200,000 black male troops forced General Robert E. Lee to

surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, VA to officially end the Civil War. Just this year, while visiting Appomattox for the 160th anniversary of the ending of the Civil War, I was told by one of the actors (who was not in character) that the black men did not play any

significant role in Lee’s surrender. While at the Lynchburg Museum, surrounded by exhibits on

wars Americans fought in, the staff said it was those black troops that helped take Richmond,

VA and kept Confederate soldiers away from their food, making them believe they were

doomed. So Lee surrendered. We can not forget the sisters and the role they played. Black

women acted as spies and brought back important information to Union soldiers that also

helped the Union to win. Harriet Tubman was one of those women.

But in Texas, enslaved people still had no idea they were free until June 19. Thus the

celebration. With the law ratified in December of 1865, supposedly it was illegal to hold slaves.

But some slave owners continued to hold them, now illegally.

For those who were told they were free, many were unceremoniously told to leave right away

and they were not to use anything from the plantation to help them move. Just get out. Where

they would go or how they got there was their business. After all, they were free. No 40 acres

and a mule. Nothing. Just go forth and build your life. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

In the meantime, many slave owners received reparations for the money they lost with their free labor gone.

And yes, there were some free black people who went on to be elected to office. Many new

towns were built by newly freed people where they did quite well economically. There were

Freedom Dues and Freedom Bureaus to assist some newly freed slaves. It never got support or the kind of money to make sure it was successful. Few were able to access it.

In towns like Wilmington, NC and Tulsa, OK, where black people were successfully living

separate lives, white Americans burned down their homes, businesses and towns and killed as many people as they could. They never paid for their crimes.

THEN AND NOW

Just an amazing foot note. While being born a slave in the US is illegal, the state of

Mississippi did not ratify the 13th Amendment until March of 1995. There was supposed to be a clerical error, and Mississippi officially certified it in 2013. (Seems Mississippi lawmakers were unhappy about not being reimbursed for the value of their freed slaves in 1865.)

When I got a little older, my dad explained to me that slavery had never fully been abolished in the United States. I suppose he had given me, as an 8 year old, as much as I could take at that time. But my new lesson was that people kept in prison were slaves to the state or federal government, because the 13th Amendment left a little loophole, meaning some US citizens were still categorized as slaves/indentured servants. You know not! What? The 13th Amendment says slavery and involuntary servitude would not be legal in the US, and here it comes, “except if you have been duly convicted of a felony/crime.” Another jewel left by my “Friend” Lincoln

A person can be born in the US and not be a slave until you go to prison. Unfortunately, many US citizens turn a blind eye to our prison system. I have heard some say “prison is not a vacation. It should be tough. They don’t deserve the right to have their concerns heard.” People can be taken from facility to facility without any loved one knowing about where they are housed. Their mental health and physical health is of no concern with many citizens believing incarcerated people don’t have a right to proper health care. Conditions in many prisons are so poor that it would be unthinkable anyone would have a conscience and treat a human that way.

Is it a coincidence many think black people belong in prison (because they are the ones who commit all of the crimes)? It is not something to ponder that while African Americans only make up 13 percent of the population, we make up over 30 percent of incarcerated people. The Sentencing Project reports black people are arrested five percent higher than whites, are given longer sentences and are less likely to receive probation for the same crimes. In communities all over the country, police target black people.

Even our children are perceived as older and more threatening than their white peers, leading to harsher treatment and earlier involvement with the justice system. Black children are suspended and expelled from school at younger ages and for minor issues.

Companies have incarcerated people to make goods and items in prison. They are paid from .14 to $1.15 an hour in federal prison and many times nothing in state prison. It is estimated prisons make about $11 billion a year from free labor.

While experts say it is impossible to calculate the value of the work done by slaves in the United States, conservative estimates put the value at $42 trillion in today’s dollars. However, that only calculates the value of the work done by slaves at the end of slavery and does not touch the more than century of work that slaves did before that.

When I was working as a reporter I advised my supervisor that the local health department was teaching people in the local jail about the spread of HIV. Many rural towns had new HIV numbers that rivaled big cities.

My supervisor turned to me and said with a smirk, “Nobody cares about those people. Janet, do you know most people don’t get locked up? Who cares if they die?” Some of my co-workers even laughed.

After all, most of the people in jail were black and poor. He had no connection to them. He perceived the HIV problem was a poor black, drug addicted and gay issue, not a community problem. It also never crossed his mind that in jail the people were accused and not gone to trial yet. But even before they could have a trial and be sentenced, nobody cared about those people.

And, just like those in 1865, who were told they were free, many people who leave prison are turned out into our communities and told to get a job and don’t ask for anything. Not even food stamps so they may eat. It does not matter if you have no shoes. Pull yourself up by your boot straps. You are not in prison. You are free.

All of this makes me consider the mentalities of those unwilling to move towards freedom. My father once told me, in order for anyone to keep a slave, they must enslave part of themselves to make sure the slave stays a slave. So, he concluded, we must fight for all to be free.

Freedom. It is just not simple. Happy Juneteenth.

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Janet Conner-Knox is a journalist, film maker, activist, and associate of Society Impact.