Why Should We Have An Emancipation Day?
Most people enjoy having New Year’s Day off. I would suggest that many of us enjoy not having to work on the first day of the New Year. I would venture so far as to say that most students, kindergarten through college, enjoy being excused from school for at least one day. The question that we pose is does anyone know why we are excused from our jobs and institutions of learning on the first of the year? What are we celebrating? Our national liberation day as a country is July 4th, so that couldn’t be it. Are we provided a holiday to be absent from our normal activities to make a resolution? Nothing is wrong with this, but we can resolve to change or improve ourselves in some way on any day. I am not sure a particular day to do so would be more significant than any other. No, we are not saying that a New Year’s Day holiday is not without merit. What we are suggesting is that we add substance, meaning, and a real, practical reason to celebrate. We are saying that we need a day to commemorate the liberation of African people in this country. By attaching an African American Emancipation Day to a pre-existing New Year’s Day Holiday, we will provide a reason to celebrate that is readily identifiable, worthy of reflection, and helps us move forward as a human race as we acknowledge collectively the moral victory we all have achieved when freedom for all of humanity is allowed.
All of the aforementioned sounds good, but we would like to provide more specific reasons that we think linking an African American Emancipation Day with the New Year’s celebration is a worthy goal.
Reflection
Again, we are already granted New Year’s Day as a holiday. Why not do more than just party on New Year’s Eve, drink champagne shortly after midnight, sing Auld Lang Syne, and dance into the early morning? Why not use the day as a chance to consciously meditate on the growth of our country, from one that was founded upon and strengthened largely by forced free labor, to one that now requires everyone to be compensated for his or her work? Let us ponder upon the movement in this country from the lawful denial of educational opportunities for African people to our current status that allows everyone the chance to maximize their intellectual abilities. Give us this day to recognize that all of us have gifts and talents that benefit us mutually. Freedom for all people allows us to be touched and elevated by everyone’s contribution. We suggest that we at least partly spend the day dwelling on these things.
Acknowledgement
What we would like to stress is that America, and the world, would be a much different place if the shackles of slavery had not been removed from America’s people of African descent. For example, how different would the world be if Benjamin Banneker had been a slave?
For those in the dark, Benjamin Banneker was a man of African descent that was a prominent member of the survey team that designed Washington D.C. It is said that when the leader of the survey team abruptly stepped away from the project to design the nation’s capital, he went to France, taking with him the blueprints that were to be used to design the city. Legend has it that Banneker accessed what has been referred to as his “photographic memory” to recreate the details of the original blueprint. The rest is, as they say, history.
We also know that Banneker published an Almanac yearly for a decade that became the main reference for farmers in the Mid-Atlantic States. The Almanac contained information regarding weather data, recipes, medical remedies, poems and anti-slavery essays. Banneker also produced the first wooden clock in America.
Let us also set aside this day to acknowledge the contributions of Dr. Charles Richard Drew, pioneer of blood plasma preservation. He is considered the father of what we now call the blood bank. Give us this day to deliberate on Garret Morgan, the inventor of the automatic traffic signal. How many lives have been saved by this device which serves as the predecessor to the modern day traffic lights? Morgan also created a gas mask that was used successfully on the battlefields World War I. This same gas mask was worn by Morgan and his brother Frank to retrieve men who had been trapped in a tunnel under Lake Erie that had exploded. For his ingenuity, Morgan was presented with a solid gold medal and the grand prize at the Second International Exposition of Safety and Sanitation.
We suggest that we use this day to contemplate on the works of George Washington Carver. He developed over 300 products that were derived from peanuts. His efforts helped revolutionize and revive a sagging southern agriculture and stimulated the economy of the south simultaneously. Attaching an African American Emancipation Day to our current New Year’s Holiday would allow us to think upon Maggie Lena Walker, the nation’s first female bank president. We would have a day set aside to dwell on Bill Picket, the originator of the rodeo tactic we know as “bulldogging.”
What about music? How different would the world of music be if Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Sly Stone, Jimi Hendrix and Prince were never allowed to express themselves musically because their plight was mere servitude from dawn to dusk? We believe a day should be set aside to acknowledge the gifts that these artists’ talents have been to us all.
Why January 1st
We have chosen January 1st as the desired day for a couple of reasons. The first reason we select this day is that it coincides with President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation announced on January 1, 1863, which freed people held as slaves “within the rebellious states.” We are simply being consistent with history by seeking to have this holiday established on January 1st. Secondly, we are pursuing this specific date because it creates no additional absences from school, nor does it promote additional work stoppage. Thirdly, January 1st comes directly on the last day of Kwanzaa, an African cultural holiday that is celebrated globally from December 25th through January 1st. Each day of the seven days of Kwanzaa has an African principle of conduct assigned to it that we study and follow. By establishing the African American Emancipation Day on January 1st, we are allowed to develop a sense of continuity from Kwanzaa into the New Year. Additionally, we propose, as specified by Marvin Roane, that we transition the theoretical principles of Kwanzaa into applied life objectives. For example, Kwanzaa’s principle “kujichagulia” (self-determination) would be met by Marvin’s suggestion that we develop employment opportunities in many various fields.
Lastly, we again reiterate we choose this date because we want people to know New Year’s when aligned with an African American Emancipation day will be a holiday worthy of a New Year’s Eve dance, a midnight countdown and a full day to reflect on how our freedom is the world’s freedom as well.
- Afi Makalani
" Improving The Quality of Our Lives Each Day Through Empowerment”
All of the aforementioned sounds good, but we would like to provide more specific reasons that we think linking an African American Emancipation Day with the New Year’s celebration is a worthy goal.
Reflection
Again, we are already granted New Year’s Day as a holiday. Why not do more than just party on New Year’s Eve, drink champagne shortly after midnight, sing Auld Lang Syne, and dance into the early morning? Why not use the day as a chance to consciously meditate on the growth of our country, from one that was founded upon and strengthened largely by forced free labor, to one that now requires everyone to be compensated for his or her work? Let us ponder upon the movement in this country from the lawful denial of educational opportunities for African people to our current status that allows everyone the chance to maximize their intellectual abilities. Give us this day to recognize that all of us have gifts and talents that benefit us mutually. Freedom for all people allows us to be touched and elevated by everyone’s contribution. We suggest that we at least partly spend the day dwelling on these things.
Acknowledgement
What we would like to stress is that America, and the world, would be a much different place if the shackles of slavery had not been removed from America’s people of African descent. For example, how different would the world be if Benjamin Banneker had been a slave?
For those in the dark, Benjamin Banneker was a man of African descent that was a prominent member of the survey team that designed Washington D.C. It is said that when the leader of the survey team abruptly stepped away from the project to design the nation’s capital, he went to France, taking with him the blueprints that were to be used to design the city. Legend has it that Banneker accessed what has been referred to as his “photographic memory” to recreate the details of the original blueprint. The rest is, as they say, history.
We also know that Banneker published an Almanac yearly for a decade that became the main reference for farmers in the Mid-Atlantic States. The Almanac contained information regarding weather data, recipes, medical remedies, poems and anti-slavery essays. Banneker also produced the first wooden clock in America.
Let us also set aside this day to acknowledge the contributions of Dr. Charles Richard Drew, pioneer of blood plasma preservation. He is considered the father of what we now call the blood bank. Give us this day to deliberate on Garret Morgan, the inventor of the automatic traffic signal. How many lives have been saved by this device which serves as the predecessor to the modern day traffic lights? Morgan also created a gas mask that was used successfully on the battlefields World War I. This same gas mask was worn by Morgan and his brother Frank to retrieve men who had been trapped in a tunnel under Lake Erie that had exploded. For his ingenuity, Morgan was presented with a solid gold medal and the grand prize at the Second International Exposition of Safety and Sanitation.
We suggest that we use this day to contemplate on the works of George Washington Carver. He developed over 300 products that were derived from peanuts. His efforts helped revolutionize and revive a sagging southern agriculture and stimulated the economy of the south simultaneously. Attaching an African American Emancipation Day to our current New Year’s Holiday would allow us to think upon Maggie Lena Walker, the nation’s first female bank president. We would have a day set aside to dwell on Bill Picket, the originator of the rodeo tactic we know as “bulldogging.”
What about music? How different would the world of music be if Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Sly Stone, Jimi Hendrix and Prince were never allowed to express themselves musically because their plight was mere servitude from dawn to dusk? We believe a day should be set aside to acknowledge the gifts that these artists’ talents have been to us all.
Why January 1st
We have chosen January 1st as the desired day for a couple of reasons. The first reason we select this day is that it coincides with President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation announced on January 1, 1863, which freed people held as slaves “within the rebellious states.” We are simply being consistent with history by seeking to have this holiday established on January 1st. Secondly, we are pursuing this specific date because it creates no additional absences from school, nor does it promote additional work stoppage. Thirdly, January 1st comes directly on the last day of Kwanzaa, an African cultural holiday that is celebrated globally from December 25th through January 1st. Each day of the seven days of Kwanzaa has an African principle of conduct assigned to it that we study and follow. By establishing the African American Emancipation Day on January 1st, we are allowed to develop a sense of continuity from Kwanzaa into the New Year. Additionally, we propose, as specified by Marvin Roane, that we transition the theoretical principles of Kwanzaa into applied life objectives. For example, Kwanzaa’s principle “kujichagulia” (self-determination) would be met by Marvin’s suggestion that we develop employment opportunities in many various fields.
Lastly, we again reiterate we choose this date because we want people to know New Year’s when aligned with an African American Emancipation day will be a holiday worthy of a New Year’s Eve dance, a midnight countdown and a full day to reflect on how our freedom is the world’s freedom as well.
- Afi Makalani
" Improving The Quality of Our Lives Each Day Through Empowerment”