Commems Collection Classic: What If? 1963 African American Progress

In consideration of the new Federal Holiday - Juneteenth - and its direct connection to actions in Texas on June 19, 1865, I thought I would post about a trio of commemorative coinage bills that were introduced in the 88th Congress (1963) "to help dramatize the progress of the American Negro from the time of the Emancipation Proclamation until the present." (Obviously, the bill's language is of a different time.)

For those not familiar with its history, the Juneteenth Holiday traces its roots to 1865 and Galveston, Texas. On June 18th of that year, US Major General Gordon Granger and his Federal troops, arrived in Galveston to ensure that Texas abided by Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation and that all slaves in the state were freed. Federal troops were necessary because even after the Civil War was decided/ended, Texas continued to allow slavery and did not set its enslaved free.

General Granger issued General Order Number 3 on June 19, 1865:

"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 personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere."

After this, Texas slave owners could no longer ignore the Executive mandate and the freeing of Texas' slaves began. It took months to complete, many owners held off making their slaves aware of the Order until after the harvest, but it was eventually completed and approximately 250,000 former slaves were freed.

June 19th was celebrated in Texas beginning the next year, in 1866. and eventually spread to other states/areas of the country. It became an official Texas State Holiday in 1979 and, as of June 17, 2021, it became a Federal Holiday to be celebrated by the nation as a whole.

Three Representatives introduced the coin bill into Congress: Henry Barbosa Gonzalez (D-TX) on August 20, 1863, James Christopher Healey (D-NY) on October 15, 1963 and James Grove Fulton (R-PA) on November 6, 1963. Each of the three bills was the same, and called for six million silver 50-cent pieces to be struck for the benefit of the National Negro Century of Progress Committee of Washington, District of Columbia.

In addition to the general "progress" statement included in its title, the bill also stated that the coins were to "help publicize and dramatize the progress... from the time of...emancipation until the present, and continuing through the next five years in celebration of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments, which completed the formal emancipation." The bill did not include any provisions that would have limited the issue of the coins to a single year/date, so it's reasonable to think that the coin's sponsor may have requested coins on an annual basis over its legislated five-year window.

Side Note:

13th Amendment: Section 1 - Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

14th Amendment: Section 1 - All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

15th Amendment: Section 1 - The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Another interesting part of the proposed legislation was its specific language that required the coins to be available to the public at the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair. The Fair opened on April 21, 1964 in the Borough of Queens, New York City. The Mint and the sponsor would have had to hustle to get coins in place for Opening Day if the bill had finally passed after its third attempt in November 1963.

In each case, the bills were referred to the Committee on Banking and Currency, but were never reported out for further consideration.

It appears that the National Committee was not an active group at the time of the coinage proposals, as I could not find any records of its activities to "publicize and dramatize" the progress of African Americans. It appears the full Committee was only to be formally assembled if the coin proposal had become a reality - no coin, no Committee! It was not the first time such an approach was taken with a coin committee/sponsor!