12:00: Special programming: "I SEE U with Eddie Robinson: Someday, Will We Ever Be Free? Juneteenth with Opal Lee"
1:00: Special programming: "The Freed People"
We bring you special programming on Juneteenth.
In the first hour, the grandmother of Juneteenth, Opal Lee, joins a special edition of "I SEE U" and shares her perspective on the commercialization of this cultural event one year after she paved the way for it to become a federal holiday. Many view Juneteenth as a celebration for slaves in Texas who finally received word on June 19, 1865, that they were free. But it took more than two years for that news to reach the ears of those enslaved after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. While it took several more months for slavery to be abolished in 1865, a system known as convict leasing had emerged in Southern states where Blacks were forced into unpaid labor. Historians note that these factors along with ongoing research provide evidence of how slavery played a major role in building this nation's economy. Moreover, some experts argue that slavery, mixed with a host of other discriminatory, economic practices like redlining and segregation, contribute to an already large racial wealth gap that continues to grow even wider. Complicating matters, state lawmakers have proposed legislation that attempts to regulate how teachers and educators can discuss those histories in classrooms across the country. Stay tuned as "I SEE U" takes a provocative look at Juneteenth. We invite the renowned schoolteacher and counselor who was the driving force in making Juneteenth a national holiday, 95-year-old Opal Lee. We also examine the commercialization of this holiday and what efforts are needed for progress with an unguarded chat with Morgan State University's journalism professor, Jared Ball; and president/CEO of the Center of Black Equity in Washington, D.C., Earl D. Fowlkes, Jr.
Then in the second hour, written and produced by David Freudberg, "The Freed People" is a one-hour documentary from Humankind that examines a time when the United States faced an unprecedented refugee crisis: four million slaves had been emancipated, primarily from plantations where they’d been held captive, following the bloody Civil War. Most possessed no more than the clothes on their backs and were now suddenly homeless and jobless. Where would they go? How would they reunite with loved ones, who may have been sold to a distant owner and never heard from again? How would people who’d been abused – sometimes savagely – and cheated out of compensation for their labors, and even legally prohibited from learning to read and write, now make the transition to a free life? In this production, we find out about the Freedmen’s Bureau, established by Congress to help this population as the war drew to a close. It established 3,000 schools for ex-slaves. We learn about the journey of these millions of newly freed people toward citizenship. And we hear about the spiritual faith that enabled them to hang on against past horrors and the new hostility they would now face – the terrorist backlash against emancipation including the Ku Klux Klan, which arose in this period. Featured are leading historians of Reconstruction: Edna Greene Medford of Howard University, David Blight of Yale University, and Abigail Cooper of Brandeis University. Also included are actual voices of emancipated slaves late in life (recorded in the 1940s), as well as brief readings from letters by ex-slaves, educators who traveled south to teach the freed people and others.
