HAPPY JUNETEENTH DAY! 6/19/08

JUNETEENTH.COM

For those who live in the New York City area or will be visiting, there's a Juneteenth exhibit being held in Times Square entitled "Claims of the Negro: 400 Years of Chains and 143 Years of Gains?" created by Darryl Hell of Sektor 6 Kommunikations. The exhibit is scheduled for June 19th - 28th and there's also 24-hour outside viewing with sound. The location is:

chashama Gallery 112 112 West 44th Street NYC, Times Square View exhibit details and hours here: S6K Kommunikations

Juneteenth and Emancipation Day Celebrations: USF Africana Heritage Project

African American Registry: Juneteenth, National Freedom Day observed!

Juneteenth Recipes

Please link to the Web sites above for more detailed information on the history of Juneteenth. We can very briefly tell you that it is the oldest known celebration for the “official” end of slavery – when, on June 19, 1865, the enslaved individuals of Galveston, Texas were the last to be informed of the Emancipation Proclamation that was signed in 1863.

The Middle Passage Pictorial by Tom Feelings with an Introduction by John Henrik Clarke is also quite interesting with a few selected written samples below:

“Nowhere in the annals of history has a people experienced such a long and traumatic ordeal as Africans during the Atlantic slave trade….millions of African men, women, and children were savagely torn from their homeland, herded onto ships, and dispersed all over the so-called New World….” [note: the “new world” includes north america, south america, and the caribbean islands.]

“It was not atypical to see a massive school of sharks darting in and out of the wake of the ships filled with human cargo plying the Atlantic….If the Atlantic were to dry up, it would reveal a scattered pathway of human bones, African bones marking the various routes of the Middle Passage.”

“Every morning, perhaps, more instances than one are found of the living and the dead fastened together,” a quote by John Newton (a former slave ship captain who, years later, became a minister and wrote the very popular hymn – “Amazing Grace” – which includes the line “…that saved a wretch like me.” The following link gives more detailed information on the background of this story: Amazing Grace

WWW.BANTHENWORD.ORG

Nate --

Barack announced an important decision for our campaign today.

I want to add a little context to the video message you received earlier announcing that we will not participate in the public financing system for the general election.

Even though we stood to receive more than $80 million in taxpayer funding for our campaign, the system has been so gamed and exploited by our opponents that it is effectively broken.

John McCain, the Republican National Committee, and their allies in so-called 527 groups that raise and spend unlimited contributions are dedicated to manipulating this broken system to raise as much money as possible -- and they've proven that they're very good at it.

A top McCain adviser told MSNBC earlier this month, "now that we're in the general election, the RNC money counts, the DNC money counts. So the truth is today, John McCain has more cash on hand and more money than Barack Obama does."

In April alone, they raised nearly $45 million. That's more than our campaign and the Democratic National Committee combined. And that doesn't include the plans of 527 groups like the one called "Freedom's Watch," which has said it will spend as much as $250 million under Karl Rove's direction to attack and defeat Barack Obama.

To compete, Barack has put his faith in ordinary people giving only what they can afford. That's been the strategy of this campaign from the beginning, and more than 1,500,000 supporters like you have gotten us this far.

We have a historic opportunity to prove that a movement of ordinary people has the power to change the way political campaigns are funded. And we have a clear goal as we begin this new challenge: 50,000 people declaring their independence by making a donation before July 4th.

You can help take on John McCain and the RNC by making your first donation today.

A previous donor is standing by to match your gift and double your impact. You can even exchange a personal note with them about why you've chosen to support Barack.

Declare your independence from our broken system. Make a matching donation today:

https://donate.barackobama.com/match

Opting out of public matching funds was an extremely difficult decision, and frankly we are at a disadvantage when it comes to raising money. Unlike John McCain, this campaign has never accepted donations from Washington lobbyists or special interest PACs.

While McCain has built his fundraising strategy around high-dollar donors giving huge checks to the RNC, you are creating a new model for publicly financed campaigns.

Thank you for your support and for taking on the masters of a broken system,

David

David Plouffe Campaign Manager Obama for America