Sask. museum says Juneteenth is an opportunity to educate | 24CA News
Juneteenth is a federal vacation within the United States commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans and whereas it isn’t acknowledged in Canada, it’s nonetheless a possibility to be taught concerning the historical past of slavery.
“My great-grandmother was born in 1870 and was still treated like a slave. She had scars on her back because of being treated like a slave. That would have probably been in the early 1880s and that was already twenty years after slavery had ended,” mentioned Carol LaFayette-Boyd, volunteer govt director on the Saskatchewan African Canadian Heritage Museum.
The emancipation order was given by Major General Gordon Granger in Texas on June 19, 1865, after the Civil War.
“Knowing what happened before is something that people will recognize why some people still suffer,” mentioned LaFayette-Boyd. “It was only 150-something years ago so there’s a real history passed down to descendants of those slaves.”
She famous the start of freedom didn’t mark the top of discrimination.
“I know it’s still here. I lived in the United States and I always wanted to be home because I always felt like a human being in Saskatchewan whereas in the United States, I recognized myself as a Black person when we should just all be able to look at ourselves as another human being.”
She mentioned throughout her first journey to Virginia in 1965 she noticed a ‘whites only’ signal hanging exterior a retailer.
“When people are educated, they may be better able to not make the same kind of mistakes that were made, to treat people without dignity and respect,” LaFayette-Boyd mentioned. “I would hope people embrace the idea of Juneteenth and recognize it as another opportunity to learn that these are some of the things that we don’t want to see again happen in the world.”
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