The Journey Continues: Juneteenth

My journey this week took me to Juneteenth and freedom. It started when the General Order No. 3 was delivered to Texas on June 19, 1865, two-and-a-half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of Jan. 1, 1863, and was delivered by U.S. General Gordon Granger: “The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer.” Juneteenth has become an official state holiday. Yesterday it was celebrated in cities and towns across the entire United States.

‘Freedom’ is only a word until one is truly set free. As a believer in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Savior, there were many freed souls who worshiped on plantations and in black churches long before the equality of rights, “Civil Rights” were practiced in America. The strength of faith set free enslaved people and gave them a special generosity of love and forgiveness many of the owners did not earn. I have met with many brothers and sisters of other colors who shared that same forgiveness of spirit in today’s time and place with their fellow citizens.

For us to cling to oldfashioned prejudices shows no respect for each other or the Lord God. John 8:31-32: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples, then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Jesus died on the cross for all the sins of the world; but He does not give us freedom to do anything we want; rather, freedom to follow God.

I connect the life of Mrs. Ophelia Coleman with Juneteenth. She is 76 years old, a BISM (born in San Marcos) and retired from Texas State University. It was over five years ago, soon after I started writing this column, that I first was introduced to her. She is a direct descendant of Martha Benny Lawshe, a slave born in Georgia in 1829, and brought to San Marcos in the 1850s by Colonel-Doctor Peter Woods to his large tract of land located between the Blanco and San Marcos Rivers. Martha Benny Lawshe died at age 93 in San Marcos and is buried in the San Marcos-Blanco Cemetery on Post Road. Ms. Lawshe’s picture in on display in the Calaboose Museum.

Ophelia Coleman is Texas-tough. In my recent visit at her home, we recalled her bouts with acute meningitis and COVID-19. Sitting on the side of her bed, Ms. Coleman joyfully praised her freedom from the recent COVID illness. “The COVID started with me sliding off the bed (I am sick)…I woke up in the hospital screaming, with a nurse holding me in her arms, telling me, ‘I am not going to let you die.’ I repeated Psalms 23 over and over.” She had learned Psalm 23 as a child and knew the Lord had carried her through the Valley of the shadow of death.

Last week, Ms. Coleman said, “Growing up in the 1950s, my family always celebrated Juneteenth with a gathering in Martindale and my advice to everyone is to love your family and realize we do not know how long we have on this earth.”

Ophelia Coleman is a member of First Baptist Church on Mitchell Street and the mother of two sons and one daughter. She is a survivor.