This is an opinion cartoon.

“Abolish slavery tomorrow, and not a sentence or syllable of the Constitution need be altered. It was purposely so framed as to give no claim, no sanction to the claim, of property in man. If in its origin slavery had any relation to the government, it was only as the scaffolding to the magnificent structure, to be removed as soon as the building was completed.” – Frederick Douglass

Alabama is Juneteenth official, y’all!

June 19 marks the day in 1865 when word finally reached the last enslaved people in Galveston, Texas that they were free — more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed.

160 years later, we don’t need to party like it’s 1865. But we can finally, officially celebrate the end of slavery in Alabama on our newest state holiday. Happy Juneteenth. It’s been a long time coming.

Juneteenth was finally authorized as a federal holiday in 2021. But it’s only been a temporary holiday in Alabama since Gov. Kay Ivey established it as such by proclamation in 2022.

“Since President Trump observed Juneteenth in June of 2020, we have proclaimed it each year, and I am pleased the Legislature has made it an official state holiday,” Ivey said in a release.

Now that we’re inching forward, can we take a look at all those embarrassing Alabama Confederate holidays?

Alabama celebrates three Confederate-related state holidays: Confederate Memorial Day in April, the birthday of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in June, and the joint holiday of Robert E. Lee Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January. That’s two and a half too many.

I say we at least swap out Robert E. Lee Day for Frederick Douglass Day.

Douglass was one of the most powerful voices in the fight to end slavery in America. Born into bondage, he escaped and used his incredible gifts for educating the world about the brutal reality of slavery. Douglass became a leading abolitionist, adviser to presidents, and a living example of Black excellence and intellect in the face of oppression.

Let’s celebrate this Juneteenth with a few quotes from America’s greatest abolitionist:

“It’s easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”

“Shoot down the Confederacy and uphold the flag; the American flag.”

“Without a struggle, there can be no progress.”

“Men do not love those who remind them of their sins.”

“They who study mankind with a whip in their hands will always go wrong.”

“I would unite with anybody to do right; and with nobody to do wrong.”

“Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down.”

JD Crowe is the cartoonist for Alabama Media Group andAL.com. He won the RFK Human Rights Award for Editorial Cartoons in 2020. In 2018, he was awarded the Rex Babin Memorial Award for local and state cartoons by the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. Follow JD on Facebook, Twitter@Crowejam andInstagram @JDCrowepix. Give him a holler @[email protected].

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