ASHTABULA – Those gathered at the Hubbard House Underground Railroad Museum for the Juneteenth program last week in Ashtabula were told to look toward Lake Erie.
“Our very own Lake Erie was a symbol of what was on the other side, and what was on the other side of Lake Erie was Canada,” Sharone Sing, the museum’s board chair, said. “And that was always like a beacon for the runaway slaves, fugitive slaves, freedom seekers that would make it here to the Hubbard House. Their idea, their dream, was to get to Freedom Land, which in the 1800s was Canada.”
But it was the historic date of June 19, 1865, that brought everyone together.
That’s the day, of course, when U.S. Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3 in Galveston, Texas, enforcing the Emancipation Proclamation, backed up by thousands of Union soldiers.
Standing on the porch of the Hubbard House, Sing read the General Order to the more than 20 people attending.
“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free,” he said in reading the opening sentence of General Order No. 3.
After hearing the General Order, the formerly enslaved considered their next step, which was to go to church, according to Sing.
“They went to church,” he said. “Can I say that again?”
And so, those at the Juneteenth celebration in Ashtabula did the same thing.
They walked to the Greater Miracle Temple Church of God in Christ just a block away, where a program was held.
“Our walk might be a little shorter than they had to walk, but we’re going to walk to church,” Sing told everyone.
As the Juneteenth attendees walked to the church, Kim Thompson of Jefferson led them in song.
“C’mon, c’mon, don’t you want to go?” she sang as everyone joined in.
Inside the church, the singing continued as well as stirring words reflecting upon the day.
“It’s an awesome event, and historical as well,” Thompson said.
She said God blessed them in having a federal holiday to celebrate “the freedom of African-Americans inside of not just one month, but many months ahead.”
Bishop Mitchell Jones, of the Greater Miracle Temple Church of God in Christ, spoke to those sitting in the pews inside the church.
“This is the day that we should celebrate to the heights,” he said, acknowledging the ordeal of their ancestors. “They paid the price that we might live the way we live.”
Pastor Emory Moore of the New Hope Church of God in Christ, meanwhile, expressed words of concern.
“We’re living in a day and time where they’re trying to take back everything that folks died for, trying to erase it,” he said.
While he didn’t call out a specific example, the Associated Press just recently reported on June 18 that a federal appeals court panel said the Trump administration can replace a slavery exhibit at George Washington’s home in Philadelphia. Historians and city officials objected that the content of a replacement installation “appears whitewashed,” the AP reported.
It was also noted that there was a Slave Bible in the 19th century that left out the story of Exodus in which Moses led the Israelites out of slavery.
But, Sing said, there was enough remaining in the Word of God that the enslaved knew that He was the God of deliverance who wanted them to be free.
“Let this be the time of Jubilee,” he said. “Give God some praise.”
