Juneteenth

FREEDOM: MP HELPS BRING HISTORY TO LIFE

By Anna Morelock
Editor

"That's the way it was. Sure was," repeated Wilbur, a slave on the Gilmore plantation as he showed a group of school kids what his life was like as a slave. "Life is rough. It's a cruel life living on Mr. Gilmore's plantation."

Wilbur led the students to the school house window letting them peer inside at the master's children. "That's not for us," he told the kids. "We can look in there, we can peek through the window, but you can't go to school in there ... You can't have any education. You can't read. You can't write. Don't know your name. Can't spell your name - that's not for you."

It's all about institutional slavery around here, Wilbur said. "Institutional slavery keep you dumb where you don't know nothing. That's what it's about." Wilbur, or Lt. Col. Jimmy McConico, commander of the 1001st Military Police Battalion (CID), led three groups of students around the "plantation," June 8 as part of the Juneteenth celebration in Junction City.

Juneteenth , which is also referred to as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas - more than two years after the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln, which declared the freedom of
all slaves in the Confederate States. Walking around the historic school house and other buildings, McConico told the children about waking up before the sun rose to pick cotton. In
the background, "slaves" stooped over picking "cotton" and going about their daily chores.

"Your ration is 200 pounds of cotton a day," McConico told the kids. "If you don't pick 200 pounds a day you'll get a lashing ... If you pick 205 pounds one day, that'll be your new limit."
Walking around the rest of the plantation, McConico told the children stories about the daily life of the slaves as the roleplayers worked around him.

Standing outside "master's house" McConico was approached by a young soldier in a Union uniform. The soldier was there to deliver news of freedom. "We's free?" he asked in disbelief. "We's free! We's free! Lord have mercy, we's free," he shouted to the other slaves who ran through the field spreading the news to others.

"But then you ask yourself," he said turning to the children. "What are you running to? Where you gonna stay now? You can't read. You can't write. You don't have no house."

At the end of the presentation, one girl looked up to McConico, who was dressed in overalls and had a bit of cotton fluff stuck in the stubble on his face. "Is that story real?" she asked.
"This whole story is true," he answered. A lot of the kids are shocked and it's an eye opening experience for many of them, McConico said. "This is an opportunity to show the children what life was life on a plantation, and actually give them a picture," McConico said, "bring them out here where they can actually see the school and instead of having to read it in a book or talking about it in a classroom we actually bring them out here on the ground where they can see, feel, and touch and smell what it's like to be on a plantation."

It's important for the students to learn about history, said Altermese Kendrick, a Juneteenth committee member and organizer of the event. "It's not just black history; it's American history," Kendrick said. "This is a part of how America came to be, and we can't overlook it. We
can't push it aside. We can't forget that it happened when these people existed, our people and our families existed in a time when it was hardest for America. But at the same time when we look back, the way I see it is, we're only able to go farther because we know where we came
from."

McConico agreed on the importance of educating children about their history. "I think this is a big deal because we need to be able to educate our children about their past from a historical standpoint just so they'll understand who they are as a people, where they came from so they'll
have a better sense of direction in terms of where they are going," he said. Much of the information presented, McConico said he got from the book, "To Be a Slave," by Julius Lester.
"My interest is in working and developing young minds whether it be presenting something on history or whether it's something that's going to inspire and encourage and cause them to be contributing members of society," McConico said. "If I can do that I will have achieved success."