"BUT, IF THIS PART OF OUR HISTORY COULD BE TOLD IN SUCH A WAY THAT THOSE CHAINS OF THE PAST, THOSE SHACKLES THAT PHYSICALLY BOUND US TOGETHER AGAINST OUR WILLS COULD, IN THE TELLING, BECOME SPIRITUAL LINKS THAT WILLINGLY BIND US TOGETHER NOW AND INTO THE FUTURE - THEN THAT PAINFUL MIDDLE PASSAGE COULD BECOME, IRONICALLY, A POSITIVE CONNECTING LINE TO ALL OF US WHETHER LIVING INSIDE OR OUTSIDE THE CONTINENT OF AFRICA..."
-Tom Feelings, Illustrator "The Middle Passage"
Thomas Nast's celebration of the emancipation of Southern slaves with the end of the Civil War, 1865.
Happy Juneteenth! Happy Freedom Day! Happy Emancipation Day!
Commemorated on this day June 19, 1865, slavery was officially abolished in the United States in a proclamation delivered by Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger. Although slavery had been abolished by Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, because there weren’t many Union soldiers in Texas to enforce the January 1, 1963 mandate, African Americans were still in bondage until they were informed on June 19, 1865.
Despite the deliberate delays and disproportioned systems of freedoms and justice for Black Americans throughout American history our ancestors and peers have remained resilient, courageous, and creative. It is for this very reason that we memorialize the ancestors of our past who were pioneers while remembering the bondage of our African people who endured generations of enslavement for a stake in a country with a population of people constantly fighting for democracy and human rights.
The visual art space as always been an expression of representation and revolution for Black & Brown artists. Today we especially champion the artistic pioneers of our past and the innovators of our present who have redefined and shifted the consciousness of the art industry through their adversity, their unique creations, and their choice to express the very complex, beautiful, and diverse experience of Black American life.
