"Juneteenth"

A couple of weeks ago I spent an evening visiting the Watts Labor Community Action Committee headquarters, a strip-mall size campus on South Central Avenue. Founded by the prominent African American leader Ted Watkins, this community center emerged shortly before the Watts riots - and after, drew the support of concerned activists all over Los Angeles. Our own Maggie Pipes remembers volunteering there during that era.

This historic complex now provides everything from a back lot for film production and concert and theater venues, to affordable housing, meal programs, and homeless outreach. It also houses artifacts from African American history: portraits of civil rights leaders, a replica of Martin Luther King's casket, and a large remnant of the slave ship Amistad. All the exhibits are memorable, but the Amistad is riveting. It's the first thing you see when you enter the main building - a stark reminder of how African American history began. You can look inside the hull and see a life-size model of the slave quarters, the people in chains. There is no denying that the cruel and tragic exploitation of human beings helped make our country what it is today.

Slavery ended officially several times. The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect January 1, 1863. But the Civil War was far from over. It took a series of bloody struggles across the South to bring emancipation to all the slaves. That is why the historic Galveston, Texas proclamation was not issued until June 19, 1865 - two months after the end of the war and conveniently, the cotton harvest.

This is the date Juneteenth celebrates. According to Muriel Miller Branch, "Juneteenth began spontaneously on June 19, 1865, amidst shouts, dances, prayers, and songs as slaves in Galveston, Texas, reacted to the delayed news of their freedom. Their impromptu celebration spawned the folk festival known as Juneteenth and, since 1866, descendants of former slaves have gathered yearly to celebrate it."

In 1865, however, "Not all slaves in the Southwest were told of their freedom . . . . A few slaveholders continued to keep the news from them, hoping to harvest another cotton crop." Conditions were far from safe. Branch notes that "Texas slave narratives are filled with stories of hair-raising escapes to freedom after June 19."

Juneteenth became a time to tell stories of freedom. The story of Nehemiah, the fast-witted and fearless slave who got his freedom by making his owner laugh, is another bit of Juneteenth lore. Freedom may have been a right, but it had to be won. And more often than not, the law had to be enforced at the point of a gun.

The history of slavery in our country has left us with unresolved moral issues. Emancipation was the result of a bitter war, which many regretted and everyone mourned. All were traumatized by the carnage.

Discrimination against people of color persisted, in spite of the Constitution. No one offered reparations to the slaves. They were free, but their trials were not over. Many years have passed since the first Juneteenth, yet it remains an opportunity to remember our history, something to celebrate and to assess as honestly as we can.

The history of our faith tradition is intertwined with the struggle for emancipation. "Unitarians had their share of leadership in that movement," notes historian David Robinson; and to them, the war was a "holy war." Their anthem was "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," written by Unitarian Julia Ward Howe. Robinson adds, "The call for self-cultivation and moral growth that was the theological distinction of [Unitarianism] lent itself readily to the appeal of uncompromised human freedom and dignity that the antislavery movement embodied." It was an idealistic stance that fit New England intellectuals comfortably enough.

The Universalists were also active in the abolition movement. Many years before the Civil War, Universalists leaders denounced slavery and called for abolition. They were not as quick to embrace war as the path to freedom, however.

According to historian David E. Bumbaugh, the Universalists, "true to their theology . . . were reluctant to demonize anyone, including the slave owners and the slave traders. Seeing everyone entangled in this tragic circumstance - both slaves and slave-holders alike - as victims, Universalists struggled to find a peaceful end to the peculiar institution." In 1841 - twenty years before the Civil War - they issued a statement declaring "that slavery was inconsistent with Universalism, with justice, and with Christian love and that it was pernicious to the enslaver and the enslaved alike," Baumbaugh writes.

This declaration received wide media coverage. The Universalists were the first major religious denomination to take a public stand. Baumbaugh also notes, "In 1853, Universalists, with remarkable clarity of insight, noted that slavery was only the beginning of the problem, that Blacks would require help erasing the consequences of slavery and for that to happen, 'we must conquer our miserable prejudices.'"

The City of Santa Monica celebrated Juneteenth yesterday. According to the flyer, this was the fifteenth annual observance here, and the day was full of activities. "We must never forget," the flyer reads. The meaning of that advice is vast. Never forget - that slavery is deeply embedded in the history of our country. Never forget - that freedom is a right, but won at great cost. Never forget - that we have yet to pay all the costs, that justice is not complete, that the struggle continues.

Unitarian Universalists have rekindled dialogue about race and oppression with a series of new programs in the last decade. The General Assembly voted in 1997 that "we are called yet again by our commitment to faith in action to pursue this anti-racist, multi-cultural initiative in the spirit of justice, compassion, and community." We recognize that our history includes both pride and shame in our response to racism: pride in the courage of our abolitionists and civil rights advocates; shame in the institutionalized discrimination we have only recently learned to identify. If you want to learn more about our history, join the Soul Work reading group this summer, and join our Committee on Multiracial Development in promoting dialogue and education about race and multiculturalism at own church.

Here in Los Angeles we are light-years away from nineteenth century New England, where Unitarian and Universalist abolitionists once led the movement with moral authority. We live in a place that is both extraordinarily sophisticated and deeply divided over race, class, and economic justice. The potential for a just community is as great here as it can be anywhere - and so is the potential for catastrophic failure.

The Watts Labor Community Action Committee headquarters was burned down in the 1992 riots - a reminder of just how bad things can be. But a new complex was dedicated in 1996, a reminder of how good things arise out of the ashes. The civil rights exhibit was reinstalled and the Amistad was added later. Dedicated people keep moving forward, never giving up on the vision of freedom that is now the American birthright. But to see the vision, you must first look at the Amistad. That is where it all began - and why, even now, so many years later - we have cause to celebrate on Juneteenth how far we have come.

[Note: The original is footnoted but the footnotes will not transmit. To see them, obtain a printed copy of the sermon from the office.]