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Why Juneteenth?

Galveston

I received a series of questions from an old friend, the underlying theme is Why Juneteenth?

Hi Roger—

I’m thinking about Juneteenth today: it’s being described as “the newest holiday” but I’m not sure whether it counts as an actual holiday.

Per the Pew Research Center via MSN: “Some 28 states and the District of Columbia made the date a public holiday, analysts revealed. State workers were given the day off with full pay, and state government offices were closed in Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.”

So the banks were closed, and the mail wasn’t delivered. There have always been holidays, including Presidents Day and MLK Day, where states and private entities have chosen not to participate.

The implication is that it’s something to celebrate

Truth is always something to, if not celebrate, then to honor.

1/1/1863

What I’ve heard suggests that it’s about slaves being kept in the dark about emancipation for a couple of years before anyone bothered to tell them.
Somehow, it seems unlikely that something so big could be kept secret for so long.

“A couple of years” goes back to the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863. As the National Archives notes: “Despite this expansive wording, the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the United States, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy (the Southern secessionist states) that had already come under Northern control. Most importantly, the freedom it promised depended upon Union (United States) military victory.

“Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation, it captured the hearts and imagination of millions of Americans and fundamentally transformed the character of the war. After January 1, 1863, every advance of federal troops expanded the domain of freedom. Moreover, the Proclamation announced the acceptance of black men into the Union Army and Navy, enabling the liberated to become liberators. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and freedom.”

The bona fides of June 19, 1865, are well documented. Also, I’ve been to Galveston, TX, which is on a barrier island.

Wars are complicated

So, formalities aside, wasn’t it all over, literally, but the shouting?

“It would be easy to think so in our world of immediate communication, but as Granger and the 1,800 bluecoats under him soon found out, news traveled slowly in Texas. Whatever Gen. Robert E. Lee had surrendered in Virginia, the Army of the Trans-Mississippi had held out until late May, and even with its formal surrender on June 2, a number of ex-rebels in the region took to bushwhacking and plunder.

“That’s not all that plagued the extreme western edge of the former Confederate states. Since the capture of New Orleans in 1862, slave owners in Mississippi, Louisiana, and other points east had been migrating to Texas to escape the Union Army’s reach.”

Also: “Without the forceful appearance of Union soldiers, Black Texans had remained imprisoned within the convulsive clutches of a dying Confederacy.” So even if people had heard the news, it “held little practical meaning so long as the state remained under Confederate control.”

I’m not sure what there is to celebrate about waiting as long as possible to let the enslaved know they were “free.”

This is people owning their own freedom. “The year following 1865, freedmen in Texas organized the first of what became the annual celebration of ‘Jubilee Day’ on June 19. Juneteenth commemorations featured music, barbecues, prayer services, and other activities in the ensuing decades. As Black people migrated from Texas to other parts of the country, the Juneteenth tradition spread.” This Daily Kos piece addresses some of this.

So its tradition predates MLK Day, or Black History Month, which began as Negro History Week in 1926.

What if

I also wonder what Lincoln might have been thinking about the Emancipation Proclamation: Did he realize how complicated it was? Did he know but just put off the details for later and leave nearly everything else as it was?

That’s a more layered question. Would the Freedmen’s Bureaus have existed longer under Lincoln? Would there have been more punitive actions against the Confederate states before re-entering the Union to prevent them from essentially going back to the status quo, with Jim Crow replacing slavery? There are probably more books about Lincoln than anyone, save maybe Jesus Christ.

I think the Library Of Congress piece is pretty straightforward. Obviously, freedom is not a straight line. The struggles of the 1940s, 1950s, and later were a direct result of freedom denied.

As many have noted, we are to form a “more perfect union.” It ain’t finished yet, and probably never will be. It operates in fits and starts with two steps forward and one or three steps back (see women’s reproductive rights, voting rights, etc., etc., etc.)

I spend less time thinking about what could have been done in the 1860s and 1870s because we can’t change it. Only the future we can change. Maybe.

Here’s a cartoon that may be too much on the nose.

Overanalyzing my good deeds

give blood

One of my many failings is overanalyzing my good deeds. I seem to have this bizarre need to check out my motivation.

I’m pretty sure I mentioned this one before. I’m at the CVS at 613 New Scotland in Albany. As is too often the case, there is only self-checkout easily available, and only one of the two machines was working. The person in front of me had too little money, and in change, to buy whatever it was they wanted.

After their repeated failed attempt, I said, “May I pay for that?” And I did. It was a huge $6.78. But was I doing that to be nice or so I could finish my transaction? Of course, the rational brain, “Can’t it be both?” The rational brain doesn’t always rule.

The last Friday in June, I had an appointment to donate blood at the Albany Public Library, Washington Avenue branch. Of course, I recall that made my first blood donation in 1971(!) so I could get out of work for an hour. The fact that I’ve now donated 178 times doesn’t get as much traction in the psyche. Or that I have donated 100 “points”, whatever that means, back to the American Red Cross.

BTW, only two folks donated including me when the staff said they had to shut down because one of their workers became ill. I put that fact on Facebook. But later, I discovered that they managed to call in someone and it was restarted. I hate giving out bad information.

Free ice cream!

After the library, I went to Stewart’s to get milk and a free pint of strawberry ice cream the Red Cross gave me for donating. Some rewards, such as T-shirts and ice cream, I will accept.

On to the Price Chopper to buy bananas and Bisquik. The woman in line ahead of me was having some complicated transaction with her EBT (food stamps) card. By the end, she was going to void the sale. I said, “May I buy this?” It was two containers of apple juice for her inarguably cute child with her. And it was only $3.13. After the woman thanked me and left, the cashier said, “You did a good thing today.” Somehow, I found that disconcerting. I don’t mind doing nice things, but I’m oddly uncomfortable with someone pointing it out, especially such a minimal deed. I like to do my good works in secret, I guess.

Unrelated to good deeds, but at APL Washington Avenue, two people took an extraordinarily long time using the bathrooms. I made some passing comments to the others waiting.

Finally, I got my chance. When I exited, one of the people still in the queue said, “Do you always talk to yourself?” Ah. I thought we were having one of those collective momentary experiences. My bad. I replied, “Why yes, I do. I find myself utterly fascinating.” That was untrue but I was so taken aback, it was the first thing that came to mind.

Movie review: Ghostlight

Mallen Kupferer

My wife and I saw the movie Ghostlight at the Spectrum Theatre during a Saturday matinee. It’s an excellent film. The New York Times describes the title. “‘Ghostlight’ [is] named for the single bulb often left burning in a theater when all the rest of the lights are shut off, keeping it from total darkness. If that sounds like a metaphor, it is.” This is not to be confused with a 2018 movie with, unfortunately, the same name.

But I’m concerned that the viewer won’t give it a chance, particularly if they are watching it on a streaming service. From the RogerEbert.com three-and-a-half-star review: “Some viewers will be irritated by one of the qualities I found most intriguing about ‘Ghostlight’: you don’t really know what this family’s ‘deal’ is, so to speak, until fairly deep in the film.” This is true.

In other words, it’s an “onion” movie, where you must peel off the layers. The payoff, however, is gripping and moving, and quite worthwhile.

The father, Dan (Keith Kupferer), is a construction worker, impatient and occasionally volcanic. His wife Sharon (Tara Mullen) is stoic, trying to keep the family together. Their daughter Daisy (Katherine Mallen Kupferer) is an intelligent, but belligerent teenager.

Dan meets Rita (Dolly De Leon), an actor in a very much ragtag theatrical troupe, and he’s invited to join in a production of Romeo and Juliet. And theater, much to his amazement, turns out to be what he needs.

Family Affair

The reviews are very positive, 100% with the critics and 97% with the audience. The biggest complaint is that it’s too “on the nose,” but even so, the acting and the direction by Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan made it all work.

Did I mention the family in the movie is an actual family? Here’s an interview with directors Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan, as well as another with the directors and actors.

The soundtrack’s musical choices are interesting, including three songs from Oklahoma that somehow work. I was curious that the movie had subtitles—the script is in English, after all—but occasionally, in scenes involving outdoor traffic, I appreciated them.

Sunday Stealing: My favorites

a Binghamton theme emerges

Smilin' Ed complete The Sunday Stealing asks about my favorites. I find these difficult because “my favorites” suggest things I do repeatedly.

1. What’s your favorite animal?

Conceptually, it has to be the duck-billed platypus, “a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal. The platypus is the sole living representative… of its family Ornithorhynchidae and genus Ornithorhynchus.”

I could say cat, although we just lost one of ours. Abstractly, I like golden retrievers because I like OTHER people’s dogs. I’ve never had one, and I’m not planning on getting one.

2. What’s your favorite book?

Oh, gosh. It’s often been the last book I’ve read, including Life Itself by Roger Ebert, Soulville, USA by Rob Bowman, The Heart Of Christianity by Marcus Borg, and How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. So I’ll pick Smilin’ Ed Comics: De Complete collection by Raoul Vezina and Tom Skulan because it brings me back to a certain time (1980s) and place (FantaCo, where I worked then.)

3. What’s your favorite color?

It’s odd. I’ve said greens or blues. But I remember getting a piece of furniture in the late 1990s, a mini-sofa in a Southwestern motif; it had warm colors. It was the first real piece of furniture I ever purchased, but I had to give it away because there was no room for it.

4. What’s your favorite dessert?

Fruit pie (apple, blueberry, cherry) a la mode (with vanilla ice cream)

5. What’s your favorite drink?

Diet Cherry Pepsi, but I can’t drink it too often because it wacks out my sleep pattern.

6. What’s your favorite food?

Things I tend not to eat very often: duck, steak, lamb.

7. What’s your favorite hobby?

Do I have a hobby? I’d say genealogy, but I’ve spent precious little time on it lately.

Cinema

8. What’s your favorite movie?

No clue. It tends to be the last movie I saw that I really liked. Casablanca is a candidate, but I’ve only seen it once. It had been Annie Hall, the Woody Allen movie I’d seen four times, though not this century. It did mirror a couple of aspects of my relationship at the time.

9. What’s your favorite restaurant?

Frank’s is an unassuming ice cream place that also serves decent Italian food.

10. What’s your favorite sandwich?

A spiedie because I’m from Binghamton, and there is no other answer. I had a TERRIBLE one at the New York State Fair in September 2019.

11. What’s your favorite season?

Spring. I’m not fond of heat, cold, or falling leaves.

12. What’s your favorite series?

The Dick Van Dyke Show or The Twilight Zone, both of which have a Binghamton connection. Both Richard Deacon (Mel Cooley) and Rod Serling lived in my hometown for a time.

13. What’s your favorite snack?

Ritz crackers and cheddar cheese

14. What’s your favorite sport to watch?

American football. Last season, I recorded nearly two dozen games, then watched them, fast-forwarding them through the huddles, replays, and commercials. I got through a 60-minute game in about 75 minutes.

15. What’s your favorite thing to have for breakfast?

Pancakes or waffles, fried eggs, sausage, and/or bacon. I don’t EAT that very often, alas.

#1 hits in 1964: yeah, yeah, yeah; baby, baby!

Jeff Barry/Ellie Greenwich

To no one’s surprise, the #1 hits in 1964 featured the most famous pop band in the world, even today. Indeed, I wrote about the Liverpudlian dominance of the US charts on February 9, so I won’t link to either the Beatles’ hits or the Peter and Gordon song attributed to Lennon-McCartney.

Because I have the book Across the Charts: the 1960s, I can quickly see if any of these songs appeared on other charts besides the pop charts. Interestingly, The Beatles never did until Something landed at #17 on the Adult Contemporary charts.

I Want To Hold Your Hand – The Beatles (Capitol), seven weeks at #1, gold record

Can’t Buy Me Love – The Beatles (Capitol), five weeks at #1, gold record

There! I Said It Again – Bobby Vinton (Epic), four weeks at #1, five weeks at #1 AC. This was the first #1 of 1964.

Baby Love – the Supremes (Motown), four weeks at #1, three weeks at #1 RB, gold record. It is one of three Supremes songs, all written by Holland-Dozier-Holland.

Oh, Pretty Woman – Roy Orbison (Monument), three weeks at #1, gold record. Orbison went to England in 1963 and toured with The Beatles. This is the last song on the soundtrack for some Julia Roberts/Richard Gere flick.

The House of the Rising Sun – the Animals (MGM), three weeks at #1

Chapel of Love – the Dixie Cups (Red Bird), three weeks at #1. Composed by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, and Phil Spector

I Feel Fine – The Beatles (Capitol), three weeks at #1, gold record

She Loves You – The Beatles (Swan), two weeks at #1. As noted, its original failure in 1963 helped propel it when Beatlemania struck in 1964.

My favorite compilation album

I Get Around – the Beach Boys (Capitol), two weeks at #1; a gold record. The first song of theirs I owned is from a bizarre album called Big Hits From England & U.S.A., which I picked up from the Capitol Record Club. It was also when I first owned Can’t Buy Me Love; I had not yet purchased the A Hard Day’s Night soundtrack (United Artists) because it was too similar to the Capitol album Something New. It’s also how I got Peter and Gordon’s World Without Love.

Come See About Me – the Supremes (Motown), two weeks at #1, two weeks at #2 RB.

Where Did Our Love Go – the Supremes (Motown), two weeks at #1, ditto on the RB charts. Their first #1.

Do Wah Diddy Diddy – Manfred Mann (Ascot), two weeks at #1. Written by the legendary Barry and Greenwich

My Guy – Mary Wells (Motown), two weeks at #1, seven weeks at #1 RB. Smokey Robinson wrote this and the Temptations’ 1965 #1, My Girl.

A Hard Day’s Night – The Beatles (Capitol), two weeks at #1, gold record. I never saw this movie until after Let It Be came out, and I saw all four films, including Help and Yellow Submarine, in one sitting.

Rag Doll – the 4 Seasons (Phillips), two weeks at #1, gold record.

A single week at #1

Hello, Dolly – Louis Armstrong (Kapp), nine weeks at #1 AC. The artist that broke The Beatles’ stranglehold on #1 in the charts. Written by Jerry Herman.

Mr. Lonely – Bobby Vinton (Epic). Also #3 AC. He had a #1 in January and this in December; I do not recall either.

Everybody Loves Somebody – Dean Martin (Reprise), eight weeks at #1 AC, gold record. Every time I hear this song, I feel a little inebriated.

A World Without Love – Peter and Gordon (Capitol)

Ringo – Lorne Greene (RCA Victor), six weeks at #1 AC. A spoken word piece by the star of the NBC western series Bonanza that apparently had nothing to do with Richard Starkey.

Love Me Do – The Beatles (Tollie)

Leader Of The Pack – the Shangra-las (Red Bird), #8 RB. It was written by Barry, Greenwich, and Shadow Morton.