Juneteenth, the day commemorating the tip of slavery in the USA, turned a federal vacation in 2021 underneath then-President Joe Biden. Earlier than that, the vacation was informally celebrated across the nation as a method to have a good time liberation from what is usually known as America’s “original sin.”
However the present occupant of the White Home has a observe file of expressing sympathy and solidarity not with the pro-American Union forces who received the battle. As a substitute, Donald Trump has aligned himself with the Confederacy which fought to retain human bondage.
Biden renamed a number of army bases that have been named after Accomplice leaders, a change lengthy requested by civil rights activists. Trump undid that job and reverted the names of a number of bases to their pro-Accomplice standing.
As an example, Trump modified Fort Gregg-Adams—named in honor of two Black veterans who served with distinction—again to Fort Lee. Robert E. Lee was the general commander of the Accomplice Military and spent the years 1861 to 1865 preventing for southern states to protect the proper to personal Black individuals.
Trump and Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth have mentioned that the restored names don’t honor the Confederacy and declare the brand new names coincidentally honor veterans with the identical final identify as Accomplice “heroes.’ Primarily based on each males’s hostility to civil rights and their historical past of racism, the excuse will not be credible.
Trump has even attacked President Abraham Lincoln, some of the revered figures in American and world historical past, and criticized his actions earlier than the Civil Battle.
“See, there was something I think could have been negotiated, to be honest with you. I think you could have negotiated that,” Trump mentioned final January.
To “negotiate” with the southern states would have meant agreeing that they might protect slavery.
And Trump is way from alone in whitewashing the confederacy.
In a current look on Theo Von’s podcast, Vice President JD Vance complained about current campaigns to lastly confront the legacy of the Civil Battle.
“I feel like something happened like 10 years ago where every – – it’s like you have to think that every single person that, who fought for the Confederate side was an evil person. I just think that’s so stupid,” Vance mentioned.
Let’s not overlook that all the level of the Confederacy was to defend slavery, notably the proper to personal Black individuals as property.
In a 2015 column for the Nationwide Structure Heart, Paul Finkelman, a senior fellow on the College of Pennsylvania, examined the paperwork and speeches made by Accomplice leaders on the time the South seceded from the USA.
“These speeches and documents show that the South seceded to protect slavery and insure white supremacy in the South,” he concluded.
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Trump has spent his second time period attempting to undo civil rights gained after the tip of the Civil Battle and the abolishment of slavery. He has signed govt orders and pushed federal guidelines modifications meant to undermine the proper to equality for hundreds of thousands of People. When he isn’t doing that, his administration has been brazenly purging references to achievements by notable People, notably members of the Black neighborhood.
Trump turned a political determine by pushing racist conspiracies about Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president. He and his fellow Republicans have made it clear that the historical past and traditions they wish to protect are on the pro-racism, pro-slavery, shedding aspect of the Civil Battle.
