It was June of 2017 when I first heard about Juneteenth.
That’s absolutely wild. I always knew that I had grown up in a very homogenous community, but I didn’t know what I didn’t know—and I didn’t know a lot. This sounds embarrassing, but really it’s just sad. I’m a fairly well-read American adult and it took me over twenty-five years to become aware of a holiday that celebrates the end of slavery in the US. That was harrowing.
It’s fair to say that I still don’t know a lot about a lot. But now, at least, I know what Juneteenth is and I want to talk about it.
Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation became official on January 1, 1863. It was a limited document and didn’t guarantee an end to slavery in and of itself, but coupled with the Civil War and the Union’s increasing victories over the Confederacy, it’s considered a lynchpin for the removal of the institution of slavery in the United States. In December of 1865, the 13th Amendment was passed and officially outlawed the practice as it was then known.
But earlier that year is a date worth remembering and one of particular importance to Black communities throughout the US: June 19th, 1865. Texas hadn’t paid heed to the Emancipation Proclamation of 1963. The specific reasons for this are lost to history, but speculation includes both malicious intent and ignorance. The website https://www.juneteenth.com has this to say in its history section:
Later attempts to explain this two and a half year delay in the receipt of this important news have yielded several versions that have been handed down through the years. Often told is the story of a messenger who was murdered on his way to Texas with the news of freedom. Another is that the news was deliberately withheld by the enslavers to maintain the labor force on the plantations. And still another is that federal troops actually waited for the slave owners to reap the benefits of one last cotton harvest before going to Texas to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. All of which, or none of these versions could be true. Certainly, for some, President Lincoln’s authority over the rebellious states was in question. Whatever the reasons, conditions in Texas remained status quo well beyond what was statutory.
Check out the rest of that site. They do an amazing job of summing up the holiday, its celebration and importance, and its history.
On April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union. This was a major blow to the Confederacy and they would never recover from it. Over the next 16 months, the clean-up of leftover troops and armies took place before the Civil War was officially declared finished.
In the interim, Union forces were finally unoccupied enough to do something about Texas and enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. Texas slaves were freed on June 19th, 1865.
It was a landmark day. It’s widely considered the day the last large group of slaves in the US was officially freed—it’s the day that slavery in the US came to an end.
It was celebrated heavily in Black Communities in the years that followed, but eventually declined due to economic and cultural factors. It wasn’t adopted as a federal or state holiday for over a century—in fact, though 47 states have now declared it a state holiday (the first being Texas in 1980), it’s still not a federal holiday—but that’s a topic for another day, perhaps.
That’s a lot of historical background. But, while the context is important, it’s not why I’ve decided to write this post. The real meat starts here, I think.
Why had I never learned about this holiday that is of such high importance to the Black community? It took my boss—a Black man—telling me that he had a special day coming up and explaining it to me for me to find out about it. He told me, “A very special day for my people is happening on the 19th. It’s the day slavery ended.” I was floored. Of course we should celebrate such a day. Why hadn’t I ever heard of this? In the age of the internet where information is constantly shoved in front of my face, I had somehow missed this landmark day of importance to the history of my nation and—most of all—to my Black brothers and sisters.
And that’s why I felt I needed to write this post. I’m a White man from a very White community. I’m educated. I love history. I’m politically active. But this holiday never once came up until a Black man told me about it.
We celebrate the 4th of July every year like clockwork and it’s a favorite holiday of mine. I love America and I love fireworks and barbeques. I love Liberty. Juneteenth should be this important—it is this important to many of our Black brothers and sisters and that’s telling. This symbolizes freedom. This symbolizes Liberty. This is emblematic of the US beginning to do the right thing by its Black citizens. Truthfully, because I don’t have their shared, lived experience, it can never be as important to me as it is to them. But it does need to be important to me. And to you. To America.
This illustrates in a concrete way another important idea that is sometimes a bit ephemeral to those of us who didn’t grow up in diverse cultures: being Black in America is different than being White. Juneteenth is of such small importance to the general public that you could go literal decades without ever having heard of it. If I said the same thing about the 4th of July you’d question my sanity. This is why all of those “You aren’t Black or White or Asian, etc.—You’re American” posts have me shaking my head: We are all Americans, yes—but we live different lives because of how the past has collectively shaped us. We all recognize and most of us celebrate the 4th but we don’t all recognize Juneteenth.
But there’s good news: Juneteenth is on the rise. More and more people are recognizing it each year. It’s almost emblematic of how far we’ve come and that we’ve still a ways to go.
I don’t know how to mourn that slavery was a reality. I don’t know what that cultural trauma means for those whose ancestors were on the receiving end. I’m trying to listen to those with more experience than I have. While slavery was abolished and the enslaved were freed, equality has taken longer to figure out. We’re still figuring it out.
The Juneteenth website says this about the holiday (emphasis added):
A range of activities were provided to entertain the masses, many of which continue in tradition today. Rodeos, fishing, barbecuing and baseball are just a few of the typical Juneteenth activities you may witness today. Juneteenth almost always focused on education and self improvement. Thus, often guest speakers are brought in and the elders are called upon to recount the events of the past. Prayer services were also a major part of these celebrations.
Let’s use this day or this week or this month or this year to focus on our education and self-improvement. I hope that we can take cues from the traditions of this great holiday and include pleas to Deity and community gathering in this self-improvement. We’ve come a long way since 1865 and there’s yet a distance to travel.
Happy Juneteenth. Happy Liberty.