" 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."Happy Juneteenth.
" I Am Not From Your Tribe " oil on canvas
A few months ago I started a series of three self portraits. This is the second in the series. It's 2009 and I wonder why my people are still treated as second class citizens in a nation that our descendants built. To be clear, I am angry. This series is a war cry. Assimilation stripped us of our native tongue and our rituals. We lost our culture and took on that of White America's. Their religion, their customs, so forth and so on. I am an American, a Texan and a black woman, but I am not from your tribe.
