Juneteenth Day

Yes, this post is being published a few days early, since I have a post coming up on Friday regarding Father’s Day on Sunday June 21st – and I’d like to post a few days early to get a start on the honoring of African American freedom and contributions to American culture, history and every day life.

September 22, 1862 – Proclamation 95, most famously known as the Emancipation Proclamation, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by then U.S. President Abraham Lincoln changing the legal status of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans under federal law in the Confederate states from slave to free. Once a slave escaped the control of the Confederate government, the slave was permanently free

January 1, 1863 the Emancipation Proclamation became effective.

June 19, 1865 – Union general Gordon Grange read orders in Galveston, TX that all previously enslaved people in Texas were actually free!

Galveston, TX – where the last of the slaves were freed. Birthplace of this holiday.

December 1865 – the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, thereby freeing the remaining slaves.

The very beginnings of emancipating slaves did not go over well in the South and even some Northerners were not happy about this, fearing a race war, etc. But it also energized the Abolitionists as well. Juneteenth, a commemoration holiday celebrating the freeing of the last of the slaves which were in Texas, is a term combining June and nineteenth. It is also know as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day, Cel-liberation Day….

With Texas having been the most remote of the slave states and only few Union troops being present, enforcing the Emancipation Proclamation had been slow and inconsistent – until June 19th, 1865.

Celebrations date as as far back as 1866, primarily being church-centric community gatherings, but by the 1920s and 1930s it spread throughout the South and had become more commercialized. By the 1960s with the Civil Rights movement, the focus of the celebrations became the postwar civil rights, but then returned to be on African American freedom and arts. By the 21st century, most major citiies have become hosts to Juneteenth celebrations. While it is recognized as a state holiday or special day of observance in 47 of the 50 states, activists are pushing for it to be recognized as a national holiday.

Harriet Tubman was a slave who helped play a significant role in the freeing of the slaves. This book tells her story.

With the news headlines being filled with Black Lives Matter, protests, etc. all having been ignited, or fueled, by recent violence against blacks, I felt it to be important to dedicate a blog post to the topic of Juneteenth. I must admit, as someone who grew up in the suburbs of a large city, I do not recall Juneteenth ever being mentioned in school or amongst my friends and family. I don’t know if that was out of ignorance or for another reason or any number/combination of reasons.

Getting to know our history and celebrations/holidays is, in my humble opinion, a very important thing to do. If we do not learn our history – where we came from, how we got to where we are – we will struggle to continue moving forward. If as they say “if you don’t learn your history, it will repeat itself” is true, then I say we need to keep on learning. Unfortunately I had little interest in history during my primary and secondary school years, but I am now definitely gaining interest in this subject area.

It is my hope and prayer that we all become more well versed in our local and national history as well as world history so we can learn what has happened, what worked and what didn’t work, why / why not and work towards things that will work in the future.