Juneteenth wreath laying ceremony at Raleigh National Cemetery
Yes
Yeah I'm I'm I'm I
Yeah
We This And thank you thank you
I have no idea
We agonized girl
OK OK right
So where do I go OK
So
can we just wanted to actually using the mic yeah
yeah
yeah thank you
How are you
Yes
You would have it's just it is not raining
You need to check
Thanks for being here
turn it on Yeah you wouldn't mind cranking it on
No this is a
Check 12
Good morning Chet
Check
How's that Checking for audio
Can y'all can y'all hear me OK All right
How's that You need to yeah sure
Give you another 10 seconds of audio checking levels and
I can give you some more audio I think if
you need it
Uh 12
OK thank you
I Good morning
Um well I saw you at genealogy
Oh yeah it's good to see you again
Check check
I
that's
Mhm
What
Yeah
Yeah
are you are you thinking I am thankful
And not have to work in the heat
Good morning
Good morning
Yeah
Good morning
Good morning
Yeah
Yes
I
Oh that's
I show you this Yeah
Hopefully I can rest
OK
Oh I did get the names
I don't know if you saw this on the back
Those are the names of the soldiers
No
Oh yeah there they are those 3 unknown that I
was talking about
Good morning
In the spirit of a salute
Today we come together as neighbors citizens and descendants gathered
in the name of memory justice and peace
Here at the North Carolina National Cemetery we pause today
to honor the 26 United States colored troops laid to
rest
Their legacy is not silent it still speaks
We borrow the language of the salute a gesture of
mutual respect between equals
It is not only military it's moral
A sign that someone's sacrifice is seen as someone's courage
today is honored
So we salute
We salute the 5,0035 North Carolina born soldiers who joined
the United States Colored troops a part of the 209,145
African Americans who fought for the very union that had
denied them
We salute we salute the black women nurses caregivers laborers
who supported the troops with their hands their hope and
their resilience
They were never issued medals but history owes them honor
We salute we salute those who were ready to fight
but told to wait delayed by 15 months of racism
before being allowed to serve
Yet when called they answered We salute
We salute General Gordon Granger whose General Order number 3
in Galveston Texas declared in 1865 that slavery had ended
the beginning of Juneteenth
We salute we salute the soldiers of the first North
Carolina colored volunteers later known as the thirty-fifth
United States Colored Troop
Formed right here in this state in New Bern North
Carolina in 1863
We salute we salute President Biden
Who in 2021 made the Juneteenth a federal holiday a
sign that national recognition can still grow even centuries after
injustice
We salute and we salute and we salute the very
identity of being black in the Civil War
We salute the risk the threats and the violence they
faced
General Order 252 from President Abraham Lincoln said mistreatment of
black soldiers would not would not be tolerated
That order still echoes
So let us remember today not just what they did
But what why they did it
Let us honor them not just with our words but
with our walk
Let Juneteenth not be just a day of rest but
a day of rising up
Let us pray Oh God with reverence we salute
Oh God with hope we remember
Oh God with love we carry on
Let this congregant say amen
Good morning
I am Tammy Hunter Jones and stand proud this morning
to share with you that I am the great great
granddaughter of former enslaved Ned Hunter who was enslaved on
what yesterday was Spring Hill Plantation known today as Dick's
Park
My family and I have the opportunity to extend our
ancestry research to learn so many great things and we're
continuing to connect dots as time goes on to move
our families closer together and to hold fast to the
legacy
Today's occasion
Juneteenth as with many African Americans celebrated holidays seeks to
expose the surrounding community to the many facets who we
are as a people our interest achievements and our history
One facet that we wanted to bring to the community's
attention is that one of the contributions of our people
is military service
I am a military mother twice over
Praise be to God
We have been made to believe
That our activism to improve the lives of our people
suggests that we are less patriotic
Nothing could be further from the truth
African Americans have fought in every war participated in by
the United States
Some examples of black heroism in the military are those
of the Tuskegee Airmen
The Harlem Hellfighters and the Buffalo soldiers who helped to
settle the West
Today's military has approximately 28% active duty enlisted women and
about 17% men
We honored today those of a unique group of this
celebration of Juneteenth Emancipation Day Freedom Day the US Colored
Troops as we scan the grounds of this place
It is confirmation of the fact that freedom is not
free
Thank you soldiers
Good morning
My name is Anita Pearson and I'm chair of the
Capital City Juneteenth celebration Committee
I also came here as a result of my husband's
final assignment in the military uh because he served as
head of the ROTC department at Saint Augustine's College
We loved it here
He left us here but we love it here and
we're gonna stay
My daughter is now serving at Fort Knox Kentucky and
en route to Fort Bragg where she'll be for her
last 4 years and it'll be great to have her
close by
So we wanna talk a little bit this morning about
the history of Juneing which was actually written by my
buddy there Doctor Laverne Weldon who's taking a picture of
me and I'll talk with her later about that
So on June 17th President Biden signed a bill making
June 19th known as Juneteenth a federal holiday
Although Juneteenth has been celebrated in the African American communities
since its inception over a century and a half ago
many Americans only learned about it recently
What is Juneteenth The American Civil War began April 12
1861 and it officially ended almost exactly four years later
on April 9 1865
This was the date on which Confederate General Robert E
Lee surrendered to Lieutenant General Ulysses S
Grant in Appomattox Virginia
News traveled slowly and by letter in those days
As a result it wasn't until 2 months after the
Union General Gordon Granger came to Galveston Texas with about
2000 Union troops to inform the community that the war
was over and African Americans could no longer be legally
enslaved
He arrived on June 19 1865
Because it was the last place to learn the news
Galveston Texas is considered the true birthplace of Juneteenth
As a reference to the date on which General Granger
arrived in Galveston Juneteenth was coined as a combination of
words June and 19th
Because Juneteenth is effectively America's 2nd Independence Day the holiday
is also known as Juneteenth Independence Day Freedom Day and
Emancipation Day
Today America's 2nd Independence Day is celebrated in many ways
All across the country church services cookouts parades and wonderful
services such as this today
Everyone please join me in singing of the lift every
voice and sing if you please stand with me
All right here we go
Lift every boy
And singer
ring ring with the
Is of
Liberty let our rejoicing rise as the listening skies
Let it resound loud as the roar
sing a song of the faith that the dark past
has taught us
Sing a song full of the hope that the present
has brought
Oh facing the rising sun of a new day
Let us march on till victory is one
stony the wrong
in the when unborn had died yet with a steady
be have not our feet come to the place for
which I
the we have come over a way that with tears
has been watered
We have come threading our path through the blood of
the slow
Out from the gloomy path till now we At last
with the white gleam of the bright star
is God of our we
Years got out of our side
And tears thou who has brought
On the way thou who hast thy mind led us
into I keep us forever in the past
We pray A our stray from the places our God
where we met the
That drunk with the wine of the world we forget
The shadow beneath th
May we for and true to what
I'm true to our
So at this point we're going to uh move in
the direction here and Earl is gonna take us and
give us a little history about the 26 gentlemen who
are buried there
If you need a hat this is the time to
get one
We won't be out there for terribly long but uh
This is a little bit of time so why don't
you take over
And also you have the pen on your
You
better
Hey hey Troy I take the mic
Oh You gonna talk when you get over here I'm
gonna talk on the way over there like we did
last time
I'm good with
What was the question We wait till we get there
You're gonna do anything on that yeah we're gonna
Oh my God I'm gonna have to recruit you again
Alex to be another exhibit part
We're good
I'm just I'm hanging out here for a moment so
they don't blow away
All righty
OK Oh
Can I help you take This is it
So yeah right
OK