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Issue 03 – Christ the King 2020

Bagatelle

One Juneteenth (For Butterfly McQueen)

One-line description.

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Lawdy, Lawdy! De white folks done discovered Juneteenth! Dat’s de holiday persons of cullud out in Texas made to mark de date de slaves out dere foun’ out Abe Lincoln done signed the ’Mancipation Proclamation. Dat wuz back in 1863, but de slaves doan find out ’til 1865. It 2020, but de white folks jes’ findin’ out. Dey all het up ’bout it. You shoulda heard de nice white lady on de classical music station sayin’ she done benched Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms to play Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Florence Price, an’ Marian Anderson ’cause it be June 19, so we celebratin’ “the end of slavery in the U. S.”

Ah wuz gone call in an’ tell her it wuzn’t de whole U. S. Dat Proclamation did diddly for de slaves in Delaware an’ Missouri. Dred Scott dead but de rest had to wait ’til December 18. Did a lotta good down here, though, after de Yankees come in 1864 an’ tore de place up. Ah didn’t call ’cause nice white folks be fragile. If dey got de details crooked, an’ a person of cullud sets dem straight, dere minds go to flinders an’ de person of cullud liable to get cut by de shards.’Bout ten years ’fore dat Proclamation, Fred Douglass gone ask de white folks, “What, to the slave, is your 4th of July?” Dey so broke up dey wouldn’t let him speak ’til de Fifth. 


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About the author

David Bradley