The people are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.
– Union General Gordon Granger’s General Order No. 3, in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865
As the Heidelberg community celebrated the raising of the Juneteenth flag in a ceremony Wednesday morning, Director of Student Affairs Aaron Nelson reflected on the confusion and chaos of Gen. Granger’s decree.
“Everyone listening to the degree … saw the world change forever. But there was mass confusion. Was it true? Where? What now?” Aaron said.
While the decree was indeed true, it came without direction for implementation. It’s “unclear language” would foreshadow the ongoing struggles for equality.
The proclamation continued:
This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property, between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them, become that between employer and hired labor. The freed are advised to remain at their present homes, and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts; and they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.
Aaron encouraged colleagues gathered at Beeghly Library for the flag raising to “remember the oppressed, work through the confusion and celebrate the 250,000 slaves who became free” on June 19, 1865.
“Let us all remember to be better and do better in the true mindset of liberty and justice for all.”
Dr. Nichole Griffin, Assistant Professor of Education, set the stage for Heidelberg’s ceremony by reading from Isaiah 1:17, which instructs individuals to "Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause."
Prior to the raising of the flag, third-year student Jeremy Marshall from Kissimmee, Florida, performed Lift Every Voice and Sing, recognized as the Black national anthem since 1990.