JD Crowe: Celebrate Juneteenth and abolish Alabama’s Confederate holidays
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
Happy Juneteenth, y’all. June 19 has long been recognized by African Americans as a day to celebrate the end of slavery. It was finally authorized as a federal holiday in 2021. But it’s only a temporary holiday in Alabama. Gov. Kay Ivey established it as a state holiday by proclamation in 2022. She should be commended. For it to become a permanent state holiday, Alabama lawmakers need to initiate and pass legislation. Don’t hold your breath waiting on these anti-DEI goobers to do anything for anyone but themselves.
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.
The end of slavery stands as a victory for humanity and should be celebrated by one and all. The Confederacy? Not so much.
Let’s start by doing away with the most embarrassing – the odd coupling of Robert E. Lee and Martin Luther King. Must Alabama always provide a Confederate loser option for those unwilling to recognize a Black civil rights icon?
As I have proposed before, we should trade Robert E. Lee for Black abolitionist and statesman Frederick Douglass.
Let’s celebrate Juneteenth with a few more quotes by Douglass:
“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.”
True stories and stuff by JD Crowe
Robert Plant head-butted me. Thanks, David Coverdale
I was ZZ Top’s drummer for a night and got kidnapped by groupies
Check out more cartoons and stuff by JD Crowe
JD Crowe is the cartoonist for Alabama Media Group and AL.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 and Instagram @JDCrowepix. Give him a holler @[email protected].
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