As penance for my long absence, enjoy this special Juneteenth chapter.
A Cuban Jubilee
The official banner of Jubilee Day, informally known as Juneteenth
June 19th, 1965
Roosevelt Park in Downtown Havana is positively festooned in Red, White, and Blue. A foreign observer could be forgiven for initially thinking they had landed in the middle of an Independence Day celebration. In a manner of speaking, they would be right. However, this is not a celebration of America's independence from Great Britain. It is instead a celebration of the end of Black slavery. On June 19th, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger freed the last remaining enslaved Southern Black Americans in Galveston, Texas. The next year, church centered celebrations of this event were found throughout Texas. The event spread through the South during Reconstruction, although the Redeemer War tamped down celebrations for fear of terrorism. However, with the last rebels crushed and the institution of the Cackalack Compromise, the celebration alternately known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, and Juneteenth would explode in popularity among Black communities in the South. Large food festivals almost akin to a county fair would emerge. There would also be competitions between gospel choirs, parades, speeches by community leaders, and one lucky citizen would dress in Union Blues to recite the Emancipation Proclamation for their friends and neighbors to hear. These traditions have broadly remained in place ever since.
When America took Santo Domingo, Cuba, Panama, and Puerto Rico, Black colonists known as "Exodites" took Jubilee Day with them. For several years, these celebrations were Exodite exclusive as Black settlers cemented their political power over the colonies alongside White settlers. However, by the late 1880's, some Afro-Hispanics began attending. On a practical level, the Black populations of these territories were useful to co-opt and give the enticement of integration in order to deal with "racially alien" Latino majorities or pluralities. On an ideological level, the American public, especially the Black American public, became seriously attached to a vision of America as a multiracial guarantor of freedom, and even initially exclusionary American rule was leagues better than Spanish or strongman rule. In these territories, Jubilee Day transformed into a pan-Black celebration of freedom and the New American Way. A few particularly tolerant pockets in the region actual had bilingual readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, but this would remain fairly limited. Jamaica is a unique case thanks to its massive English speaking Black majority, and Jubilee Day there is more akin to the South than the Greater Caribbean. Jubilee Day was an informal celebration until the Roosevelt Administration where rising racial consciousness and nationalism prompted the institution of Jubilee Day as a federal holiday celebrating "The expansion of American freedom and the unique genius of the Black Race in this country." It isn't uncommon to see troupes of Black Rough Riders at Jubilee Day celebrations in honor of both Roosevelt and the Black troops in his Rough Riders, a prototype for the future integrated American military. In the post-war era, Jubilee Day celebrations have become more lavish than ever, a reflection of the huge increase in prosperity among Black Americans.
This takes us back to our Jubilee Day celebration in Roosevelt Park, Havana, State of Cuba. Roosevelt Park is a massive area, clocking in at 300 acres. The entire area has essentially become a fairground. Vendors sell rice and beans, fried chicken, and bbq. One might notice a large amount of red foods. Red velvet cake, red peppers, red bbq sauces, red beans, and cherry and strawberry flavored sodas and lemonades that are various shades of red. Red foods are eaten as symbols of the blood of the enslaved who have gone before, never to be forgotten by their descendants. Across the park turned fairgrounds, endless Red, White, and Blue banners float in the wind. First and foremost there is, of course, the Star-Spangled-Banner, the emblem of the Union, the Flag That Makes You Free. There are also replicas (and a few original banners) of the banners flown by various brigades of United States Colored Troops flying or on display in tents. Also omnipresent is the Jubilee Banner, a flag invented by Spanish-American War veteran Reginald Brown in 1915 for the 50th anniversary of Jubilee Day. The Red, White, and Blue symbolize that the African American community is, in fact, American, while the bursting star symbolizes the dawn of a new age of freedom. Finally, there are a large number of Liberian flags around. Liberia is the only other country on Earth to celebrate Jubilee Day, both in celebration of the freedom and struggles of the Americo-Liberians and their ancestors, as well as the ongoing integration of Native Africans. Liberian food and culture is frequently celebrated at Jubilee Day events across the country as kindred Black people.
Among the star studded list of speakers you have the old mobster owners of the Havana Rough Riders, Elle Davis (Beaconsfield's "Black Aphrodite"), star slugger Zeke Gutierrez, and Arnold Johnson, an elderly veteran of the Spanish-American War decked out in full dress uniform. The First Havana AME Zion Church Choir will perform a comprehensive set list of gospel songs including Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, When The Saints Go Marching In, and Steal Away to Jesus among others. Harold Clinton, a 2nd generation Exodite and Mayor of Havana, will recite the Emancipation Proclamation. A massive parade has been planned, featuring thousands of Black veterans of the World War, the Mexican War, the Brazilian War, and led by the still living Spanish-American War veterans and Black Civil War Reenactors. At nightfall, a spectacular fireworks show will occur to commemorate 100 years of Emancipation. The all-Black Havana Veterans Choir will perform "Yankee Doodle" and "Marching Through Georgia" as fireworks and cannon are shot off. The sky will light up with dazzling color, including words spelled out like "100 Years Free," "Slaves No More," and "Americans All" while down below thousands of Black men, women, and children shout:
Hurrah, Hurrah, we bring the Jubilee
Hurrah, Hurrah, the Flag That Makes You Free
So we sang the chorus from Atlanta to the Sea
While we were Marching Through Georgia!
A massive Jubilee Day celebration in Santo Domingo (1912)
Modern Jubilee Day celebrations in Wisconsin
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