juneteenth history

juneteenth history

The History and Significance of Juneteenth

1. Introduction to Juneteenth

Ex-slaves have celebrated the anniversary of this date ever since, and thus, the holiday probably originated in the late 1860s. The celebration of June 19th was coined “Juneteenth,” a term that became increasingly popular. In 1866, Texas was the first state to recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday, but Congress did not recognize it as a national holiday. By 1885, nearly every former slave state and the District of Columbia had established Juneteenth holidays. The frontline states were mostly in the Southwest and lower Midwest. The day was especially honored in churches. The day is still deemed a “public holiday” in some states like Texas, as well as considered “special days of observance” or “state holidays” in other states. The day was legally recognized by 28 states, by 45 of the 50 U.S. states, by the U.S. Congress, and by the President of the United States.

Juneteenth, also called Emancipation Day or Juneteenth Independence Day, is a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. It is observed annually in communities, especially those in the African American community. Juneteenth commemorates the official emancipation of enslaved African Americans in Texas. The holiday was first celebrated by African Americans in Texas. The state was the final holdout where slavery had not been abolished until General Gordon Granger read the Emancipation Proclamation to the people of Galveston on June 19, 1865, when he landed there with 2,000 Union troops.

2. Origins and Historical Context

As witnessed in the more recent Frederick Douglass bicentennial anniversary, Americans took a re-look or a second glance at his suffrage and human rights fight coming from the 19th Century, informed in new ways by the George Floyd public killing with the events of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries setting an African American historical backdrop. When we participated as a global community in such events as the opiate crisis, the COVID-19 public health crisis, the public killings of George Floyd and other African Americans in 2020, and historical if not clear precedent events marking 2021 of voting disenfranchisement and voting inequalities, the historical lesson that there is more work to be done has come again. Therein we examine not just the tenets of Juneteenth itself, but its larger cause of social justice and its evolution of all citizens as possible active participants within government, political, community, and local levels of democracy, the law, and society.

Despite the host of challenges that stood to derail reconstruction, a tremendous restructuring of the economic and justice systems was seen through, providing greater representation of African Americans, establishing free public schooling, and advancing human and political rights. June 19, 1865, holds great significance to the generations that followed the victorious march through the South. As celebrations take place in various regions across the United States, Juneteenth holds the second-place position in a line of public historical events embedded in our national and state calendars. As a historical event, if we reflect on Juneteenth to consider its origins and contexts, it continues to teach us historical lessons that we believed or deemed as resolved. The significance of Juneteenth Day, or Emancipation Day, saw the beginning of emancipation as established through the newly written Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The legal matters of citizenship and naturalization preceded the guaranteed rights of all people, and thus the rights of African American citizenship in the post-Civil War era. While Nobel Prize-winning African American author, Toni Morrison, had reevaluated, it is critical that we also take another look, focusing our attention on historical events that have lost their initial meanings and some of which are widely remembered.

3. Emancipation and the Juneteenth Celebration

The Negro’s memory of Juneteenth has faded, although his Texas friends did observe. Now we see that Juneteenth had continued with only minor notice and interruption. Although decreed in April and a celebration was then anticipated, we find a report commemorating Emancipation in May, followed by very few reports regarding formal activities until the early 1920s, when census documents its first observance with the information that 156,019 Texans had acknowledged the holiday. Its contemporary successor and essence are generally the same as they were during Reconstruction when some of Juneteenth were political expressions.

When Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger issued the mandated federal orders, he inspired the first June 19th, or “Juneteenth.” The Union’s Caucasian officers, many of whom were from Kentucky, carried the news of freedom to slaves in the hinterlands of a conquered nation. Texans began to celebrate Juneteenth as an annual celebration of liberty and as an expression of racial differences and of thanksgiving among Negroes. Celebrated in Negro churches much like “Watch Night,” Africans brought subs of sweet potatoes and began the red drink tradition. In the absence of large red stones, envelopes and small twine became jumping jacks. It was a demonstration that most blacks retained a strong desire to observe the day of their proclaimed liberty, even though many laws ordered to control them had not been rescinded or repealed.

4. Juneteenth’s Evolution and Contemporary Observance

Through the years, as African-American culture re-asserted itself in its various forms, Juneteenth was a time for reassuring each other, for praying for the future, and for gathering remnants of the past. Juneteenth continued to be highly revered in Texas decades later, with many former slaves and descendants making an annual pilgrimage back to Galveston on this date. A range of activities were provided to entertain the massive number of suddenly free people. One of the earliest emancipation festivals that had a tie to Juneteenth was organized by the Reverend Jack Yates from Houston. Not only was this the usual barbecue (and it is still that), but a major part of the celebration was the housing of the numerous ex-slaves, and a special fund was established to meet the needs. Over the ensuing years, these annual events in Texas turned into such big events that entertainers began making their way to these festivals, where their public appearances would afterwards result in them leaving with a better reputation.

With the rediscovery of the 1862 Union soldiers’ order after the close of the Civil War, African-Americans began to celebrate June 19 on a regular basis. The name “Juneteenth” is a contraction of the words “June” and “nineteenth” and is the word of choice for the continuation of a tradition that started in Texas. Within a short time, freed people began the search for relatives for a family reunion. The old embodiment of the rodeo – “ride” was borrowed for the same purpose. Church picnic gatherings with various foods in abundance were quickly put together when the news of a celebration was heard. There was quite a bit of political connotation found in the first few years following the freedom celebrations, particularly with the noticeable rise in the proliferation of political clubs stemming from the not too distant remnants of the old Whigs and the new dominance of the Republican Party.

5. The Cultural and Societal Impact of Juneteenth

Tradition serves as a take-off point for a shared experience of local or regional customs. Customs and traditional practices surrounding Juneteenth focus on art, prayer, and stories. Performance of religious rituals, art, both visual and performance, stories, songs, dances, prayer, and parades of historic and stylistic proportions serve as vehicles to visualize pride in the community. Favorable economic opportunities, usually through outdoor vending, with emphasis on space and ownership, are also integrated. All are freely chosen activities, not mandatory obligations, and require specific preparations in order to establish or maintain a state of well-being collectively. As well as serving as historical tidbits, each element of celebration is a claim to cultural characteristics as to who and whose the celebrants are: a proud, resourceful, equal people, not who their oppressors think they are.

The cultural and societal impact of Juneteenth is substantial. Celebrated today as a significant part of the African-American experience, it remains a strong symbol of the ongoing battle for equality with relevance in this 21st century environment. Throughout more than 140 years of freedom celebrations, the descendants of the former slaves have embraced the spirit of Juneteenth. This occasion is used and celebrated to appreciate one another and to further cultivate knowledge and appreciation of the African-American experience.