History – BG's Reads

July 29, 2023

On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed

On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed, is part history and memoir by an insider, an African American’s prospective on Texas by a Texan. The author, Annette Gordon-Reed, is a proud Texan, because her family’s roots are in the state. It’s where her family has been for generations – It has been, and is, their home. But because of her family’s African heritage, she also is aware and mindful of the more layered history of the state of Texas and what was for generations an African American holiday in Texas, Juneteenth.

June 19th, 1865, shortened to Juneteenth, was the day that African Americans, held under the yoke of slavery, were told that they were free. It was two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation (January 1865) and two months after the Confederate forces surrendered to the Union forces at Appomattox, Virginia. Major General Gordon Granger of the United States Army, arrived in Galveston Texas and issued General Order No. 3, which stated that all slaves were free with equality of personal and property rights and the relationship between master and slave was now employer and employee (do I have to tell you guys that the part in italics became a problem?)

The author relates the history of Texas and its racism toward people of color and especially those of African descent. Texas was formed by white settlers, who were originally welcomed by Mexican residents of the area (Tejanos) and the government of Mexico who wanted aid and protection against Native Americans. The white Texans, who embraced the enslavement of Africans and refused to end the practice, later fought against their Mexican allies to secede as an independent territory in 1836. This new Texan republic’s constitution welcomed all free white people with their slaves, said that all slaves would continue to be slaves in perpetuity, and excluded all free Africans and Indians from citizenship and privileges. Years later, in 1845, Texas would join the United States as a slave state and later, secede to form the Confederacy.

Put simply by the author, “Texas is a White Man”. They decided who claimed the country as their own and who had the right to be a citizen – they had the power and wrote the state’s constitution after all, solidifying their beliefs, enslaving others for generations. The author points out that General Order No. 3 was based on the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves “in states rebelling against the Union”. So, it only affected states in the Confederacy – ten in all – South and North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, Virginia, Arkansas, and Texas. Slavery was still legal in slave states that did not secede – Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and Delaware! Slavery was not abolished in all states until the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified by the necessary number of states (be aware, not all states ratified this amendment originally). And may I point out, even this amendment had an exception – “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, EXCEPT as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the US, or place subject to their jurisdiction”. The 13th Amendment stands as is to this day.

So, given this history, it is no surprise that white Texans resisted freeing their slaves or treating the African with any type of respect or equality. They believed that the African was inferior, and being enslaved to the superior race was a natural condition. The free labor of Blacks was intertwined with the success of the white economy of Texas. The author gives a history of the violence and discrimination of Black people and her family’s in the state of Texas throughout the years and after slavery as common practice, and how the holiday of Juneteenth was celebrated among Black Texans for generations.

This book gives an informative, interesting, personal family account of the history of Juneteenth in Texas and Texas itself. There is definitely more than one version of history, depending on who is telling it. This book is filled with personal, family, and local narratives from the author that gives a truly valuable, interesting inside view of history. On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed is really an excellent read!

June 1, 2023

WE HEREBY REFUSE: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration by Frank Abe and Tamiko Nimura

This graphic title, We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration, by Frank Abe and Tamiko Nimura, was also part of a panel of graphic novelists from the October 2021 Brooklyn Book Festival (see February 2023 post). The author, Frank Abe, explained he was born after World War II and his family did not speak of the internment camps. As American Japanese, patriotism, passive denial, and loyalty are their traits. He wrote this graphic novel to make the story more epic and make the reader feel more empathy for the characters. If a group of people don’t feel comfortable telling their story for whatever reason, it doesn’t mean their story isn’t worth telling. Therefore, this graphic history is so important.

It’s always hard for me to read about the history of injustice and ill-treatment of a group of people simply because of their race, ethnic background, religion or whatever. But I find it a necessary thing to do, especially if the account is being told by a member of that group. Learning about these events and keeping them in the sphere of our minds, may prevent anything like it from happening again.

We Hereby Refuse concentrates on the story of three young first generation Japanese Americans – they were born in the United States, describing their lives before being removed, their experiences in the camps and their release, 1942 – 1946. Hajime Jim Akutsu, 22, lived in a home his family owns in Seattle. The family owned a shoe repair business, and he was an engineering student in college. He was imprisoned for refusing to sign yes on a loyalty questionnaire. Hiroshi Kashiwagi, 19, lived with family on a farm outside Sacramento, with an ill father in a sanitorium. He was waiting to enroll in college. He resists government pressure to sign a loyalty oath, yields to family pressure to renounce his citizenship and must fight in courts to regain his status. Mitsuye Endo, 21, had a California state job, with a brother enlisted in the military and lived with her family in Sacramento. She filed a lawsuit contesting her imprisonment; it reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

An excellent narration is given of the events that lead to the roundup and their imprisonment. By law, immigrants from Japan were not allowed to apply for citizenship and they and their children became easy targets of hatred and bigotry during the war. The problem, these feelings didn’t just come from the general population, American politicians and leadership in the military also held bigoted views and acted upon them. Military zones were created excluding Japanese Americans and laws were created making internment or wartime incarceration legal.

The Japanese American Citizens League – JACL – made up of US born members of Japanese ancestry – capitulated to authorities, hoping to prove they were nothing like the enemy, even reporting people they thought were suspect and encouraged people to fill out and sign loyalty pledges. The leaders of this organization worked with authorities to have Japanese Americans relocated, encouraging them to accept relocation without a fight as a show of patriotism.

People of Japanese ancestry were sent to 16 sites on the western coast in temporary assembly centers until the Army’s Western Defense Command and Fourth Army Wartime Civil Control Administration (who comes up with these names?) could complete War Relocation Centers. They were told to bring only what they could carry. They lost everything – businesses, property, savings, jobs – and were not compensated. Leaders of the JACL became administrators of these centers.

Once moved to the Relocation Centers, one described as, located at a desolate location near the Oregon border with 64 blocks of wooden barracks, surrounded by barbed wire and watch towers, they were asked again to fill out questionnaires agreeing to serve in the military, if called, and pledging loyalty to the US government and renouncing loyalty to Japan. Many refused to sign this questionnaire, feeling that denouncing loyalty to Japan would be an admission of being loyal to Japan at some point. Some also took issue with pledging to serve in the military while they and their families were being segregated and held in these camps. If they were stripped of their rights as citizens, how could they be expected to serve in the military? Young Akutsu in particular, refused to sign both questions and was sent to prison for his resistance.

This graphic title, We Hereby Refuse, by Frank Abe and Tamika Nimura, gives an excellent account of the segregation and internment of Japanese Americans in these horrible camps. The detail of the conditions, treatment they endured and the resistance among them, is detailed and well researched. The illustrations and layout are also just excellent. As I said at the beginning of this post, we should all read about these events. Becoming aware and learning about our past helps us understand how our time may be similar or different. It gives us a point of reference, so that an internal alarm may go off, hopefully preventing anything like this from happening again. We Hereby Refuse, I hope you all give it a read.

January 29, 2022

The Black West (6th expanded edition) by William L Katz

My nephew suggested I do an entry on the recently released movie, The Harder They Fall, since it did have somewhat of an historical foundation, using names of black people that actually lived. But since this blog is BG’s Reads, I thought I’d read a book on the subject, The Black West by William L. Katz. I’ve always favored the work of historian and author, William L. Katz, who over the years has been a guest on WBAI and WNYC radio talking about his work on blacks of the old West. This is a 2019 new edition to Katz’s The Black West, originally published in 1971.

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February 25, 2021

BG’s Picks For February – Black History

My nephew suggested that I start a section called BG’s Picks for books that I have read in the past and would like to inform readers about. So, for this month of February, I thought it would be a good time to tap a few titles of black interest for readers. These titles I’ve read were quite interesting and worth mentioning for those who like history and reading accounts of real people’s struggles and triumphs. There are three titles below:

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