
Dear Reader, Since the news of freedom was slow to reach the farthest corners of Texas, I feel OK posting this a few days later. Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. It took two years for the federal troops to reach Galveston, Texas to tell those enslaved there that they were freed. That happened on June 19th, 1865. Scroll ahead, 158 years, to 2023 when President Biden signed the law making Juneteenth a federal holiday.
Harriet Tubman, abolitionist and social activist, is the perfect icon for this occasion celebrating African American emancipation. Born into slavery, Harriet escaped, yet returned 13 times to Maryland to lead 70 more enslaved friends and family into freedom. Nicknamed “Moses,” she was a conductor on the Underground Railroad. She claimed, “I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”
To do justice to the image of this great, courageous woman, art activist and sculptor, Linda Mickens captured Harriet in a youthful manner. “There are a lot of images of her that were too fluffy and soft…” Rifle in hand, with sword and pistol in her belt, Linda Mickens sculpted Harriet “battle-ready…in the business of freedom by any means necessary.”-LM
https://lindamickens.com/about/
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/harriet-tubman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman