Many Americans are celebrating Juneteenth, marking the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in the United States learned they were free.
For generations, Black Americans have recognized the end of the darkest chapter in US history with joy, in the form of parades, street festivals, musical performances or cookouts.
The US government was slow to embrace the occasion – it was only in 2021 that Joe Biden, who had been inaugurated that January, signed a bill passed by Congress to set aside 19 June as a federal Juneteenth holiday.
And just as more people learn the historical details and traditions of Juneteenth, the holiday’s message is facing modern pressures – especially political rhetoric, policies and laws censoring history and condemning efforts to teach Americans about the nation’s racial history. Then there are issues such as companies using the holiday chiefly as a marketing event with little beneath the superficial, and people partying without taking the trouble to learn why there are commemorations and celebrations.
How did Juneteenth start?
The celebrations began with enslaved people in Galveston, Texas. Although president Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation officially freed all from slavery in 1863, it could not be enforced in many places in the south until the civil war ended in 1865. Even then, some white people who had profited from enslaved labor were reluctant to share the news.
Laura Smalley, freed from a plantation near Bellville, Texas, remembered in a 1941 interview that the man she referred to as “old master” came home from fighting in the civil war and didn’t tell the people he enslaved what had happened.
“Old master didn’t tell, you know, they was free,” Smalley said. “I think now they say they worked them, six months after that. Six months. And turn them loose on the 19th of June. That’s why, you know, we celebrate that day.”
News that the war had ended and they were free finally reached Galveston when the Union major general Gordon Granger and his troops arrived in the Gulf coast city on 19 June 1865, more than two months after the Confederate forces had surrendered.
Granger delivered General Order No 3, which said: “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.”
Slavery was permanently abolished six months later, when Georgia ratified the 13th amendment. And the next year, the now-free people of Galveston started celebrating Juneteenth.
Are there other titles used for Juneteenth?
It’s sometimes also called Juneteenth Independence Day, Freedom Day, second Independence Day and Emancipation Day.
It began with church picnics and speeches, and spread as Black Texans moved elsewhere. Most US states now hold celebrations. Opal Lee, a former teacher and activist, is largely credited for rallying others behind a campaign to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. The 96-year-old had vivid memories of celebrating Juneteenth in east Texas as a child with music, food and games and she rallied support from her home city of Fort Worth all the way to Washington DC, Lee was one of the people standing next to Biden when he signed Juneteenth into law.
How have Juneteenth celebrations evolved over the years?
The national reckoning over race ignited by the 2020 murder of George Floyd by police helped set the stage for Juneteenth to become the first new federal holiday since 1983, when Martin Luther King Jr Day was created.
Now there is a movement to use the holiday as an opportunity for activism and education, with community service projects aimed at addressing racial disparities and educational panels on topics such as healthcare inequities and the need for parks and green spaces.
Like most holidays, Juneteenth has also seen its fair share of commercialism. Retailers, museums and other venues have capitalized on it by selling Juneteenth-themed T-shirts, party ware and ice cream. Some of the marketing has misfired, provoking a social media backlash.
Supporters of the holiday have also worked to make sure Juneteenth celebrators do not forget why the day exists.
“In 1776 the country was freed from the British, but the people were not all free,” Dee Evans, national director of communications of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation, said in 2019. “June 19, 1865, was actually when the people and the entire country was actually free.”
Associated Press contributed reporting
