Dear Editor,
I call your attention to the Oct.11 issue of the Marysville Journal-Tribune with the page one headline “City balks at adding Juneteenth as a holiday.” This story describes the legitimate debate concerning the fiscal burden of observing the Juneteenth National Holiday by providing a paid day off for city workers. However, within this article, several quotes from the Marysville City Council President Henk Berbee are problematic and deserve attention. I will list four.
1. “Unfortunately, the holiday has not yet grown on me, personally.”
2. “Ohio was a free state when all of this was taking place.”
3. “We didn’t trade in slaves.”
4. Council president added that the city already observes Martin Luther King Day which is “a Black holiday.”
My hope is that you can use this episode to remind all patriotic Americans that the issues of slavery, the U.S. Civil War, emancipation, reconstruction, Jim Crow laws, and the civil rights movement are American history, not Black history.
Charles D. Beverlin
Marysville