Underground Railroad by Marsha Morningstar

In July of 2023 the State of Michigan joined the wide majority of US states in declaring Juneteenth National Independence Day an official state holiday. The Michigan Advance writes:

Juneteenth recognizes the date, June 19, 1865, that Union Army Gen. Gordon Granger landed in Galveston, Texas, and read General Order No. 3, stating that all enslaved people were free, and that former masters and enslaved people were absolutely equal in personal and property rights. 

Its importance has long been celebrated in the African-American community as the country’s second Independence Day, marking the last place in the former Confederacy that experienced emancipation. Although as the National Museum of African American History and Culture has noted, it was only through passage of the Thirteenth Amendment that slavery was truly abolished throughout the United States.

I selected this photo to share because for a long time, I believed as many others did that slavery ended at the end of the Underground Railroad or with the end of the Civil War. It certainly didn’t end there, and many of the structures remain firmly entrenched to this day. If you’re angry about this celebration, I encourage you to read this excellent piece in The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture on the historical legacy of Juneteenth.

Marsha took this detail shot of “The Gateway To Freedom” by sculptor Edward Dwight at the Philip A. Hart Plaza way back in 2012. Click here for more in her Street Shots album on Flickr & for sure read more about the sculpture at Detroit 1701.