By Carrie Lewis and Deirdre Jennings-Holton

“…all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free...” —Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 18631

The story is unclear. Was the messenger sent to Galveston, Texas, murdered along the way, or was it decided to wait until the Union army arrived to enforce the new law? What is clear is that the communication sent to tell 250,000 enslaved men, women, and children in Texas of their freedom, and to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation, did not arrive for 2½ years, needlessly deferring their dreams of freedom. Then General Gordon Granger arrived on June 19, 1865, and read General Order Number 3:2

According to Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Juneteenth4 was originally celebrated only in Texas by those who were formerly enslaved as “an occasion for gathering lost family members, measuring progress against freedom and inculcating rising generations with the values of self-improvement and racial uplift.”5

Each week, NREA and the I Am A Rural Teacher Campaign share how vast rural America is. Check out our 50 States highlight on Facebook: facebook.com/iaartcampaign

Are you an Oklahoma rural teacher? We'd love to hear from you, Organization of Rural Oklahoma Schools! If you're from another state, your feature is coming soon, so submit today at http://bit.ly/iaartsubmit.

Feel free to contact Hailey Winkleman, the NREA Advocacy Liaison for this campaign, at iaartcampaign@gmail.com with any questions about submitting your story.

Since I was in second grade, I knew I wanted to be an elementary teacher. I would spend hours drawing out what my classroom would look like and read countless stories to my dolls that stood in the place of my future students. Year after year, my drive to become a teacher never changed and that's all in part to the teachers who influenced me along the way. Even more so, these relationships only solidified that I wanted to come back to my hometown and teach the future generations in the same building that influenced me.

Truth is, now that I have children of my own, I couldn't imagine them going through their own educational journey anywhere else but here in Seneca Falls. We are a close knit family. We know about each other's families and we take part in each other's times of celebrations and times of sadness. This unprecedented time is no different. Being a part of a rural community allows for support like no other. I have the relationships already built between my colleagues, administration, and parents that have helped to ease the unknowns during this trying time.

Rural Schools Association of New York State recognized our national winner from our 2017 Rural Forum in Columbus, Ohio. Scott is a great ambassador for rural educators and rural communities.

CAN was joined for the briefing by a panel representing agricultural producers & farmers, American enterprise & innovators, rural communities, educators & students and veterans, who spoke to:

The House is preparing to merge several typically unrelated bills into one massive "infrastructure" package, doling out more than $1.5 trillion for everything from roads to education, housing, clean water, broadband and more.

Speaking with reporters Thursday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi gathered the heads of some of the largest House committees to discuss their pieces of the legislation, which she called "Moving America Forward." She said she intends for the legislation, which contains a significant focus on green initiatives and climate resiliency, to pass the House before the July 4th recess.

Daily Yonder: In a world driven by frenetic change, which small towns are going to thrive?

We know rural people play a key role in our society, so some small towns will have a future. Some small towns are innovative and progressive. Other small towns are stuck in the past.

Is there anything that tells us which towns will survive and prosper? The key factor is openness to new ideas.

What’s the right way to reopen local businesses in your town? How can your local governments cope with the loss of revenues? What will you do to help people who have lost their jobs?

Scroll through your inbox or the stories here on the Daily Yonder and you can’t avoid question after question affecting the future prosperity of your community and people. How can you make the best decisions with the limited information available? Of course, it’s overwhelming.

When Dan Reineke was in quarantine waiting for the result of his Covid-19 test, he had his groceries delivered to his home. His local grocery store — Michigan Hometown Foods — doesn’t have an online ordering system, though, so he wrote down a list of what he wanted, snapped a photo with his phone, and sent it as a text message to the store’s manager, Arliss Spillane.

“I was as explicit as I could be,” Reineke says about his list. “I generally tend to buy things without paying attention, so I tried to pay attention for Arliss.”

Reineke, an emergency medical technician who lives in Michigan, North Dakota, quarantined after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Reineke tested negative, but he felt fortunate that Spillane and her crew were able to bring him groceries. Spillane started a tab for Reineke, because he only pays in cash, and he settled up once he was able to return to the store in person.