Juneteenth: Why Do We Celebrate It?
Show of hands, how many of us learned about Juneteenth in school? No one? Yup, same. In school I learned that after the Civil War ended and slavery was abolished, Texans deliberately withheld that information from the slaves. It wasn’t until June 19th, 1865, that the last enslaved people were freed in Galveston, Texas. Hence the significance surrounding why we, especially African Americans, celebrate Juneteenth every year. But let’s get into a bit more history.
On August 20th,1619 20 enslaved Africans, that were kidnapped by the Portuguese, arrived in Jamestown, Virginia. Thus, igniting the starting point of the American slave trade. For the next 190 years, slaves would continue to be kidnapped from their homes in Africa, carried across the transatlantic seas through the middle passage under inhumane conditions, and sold as property in the Americas. It wasn’t until 1808 that the United States signed a federal law into effect that prohibited the importation of new slaves into the country. It is estimated that by this time the number of kidnapped and enslaved Africans in the United States had grown from 20 to over 1 million individuals. Please note, that this does not include the brothers and sisters that chose the sea because they knew death was better than bondage, or those who didn’t survive the horrific conditions of the middle passage, or those that were murdered during their unfortunate enslavement, or those that died of “natural causes” before they could witness the abolition of slavery.
The abolition of the transatlantic slave trade didn’t stop slave catchers from importing slaves illegally and unfortunately fueled the rise of the domestic slave trade. By the time the Civil War began on April 12th, 1861, the number of recorded slaves in the US had grown to over 4 million. This means that slavery had increased by a 4x multiplier in just about 50 years. As you can imagine, it was not easy, nor quick, to notify approximately 4 million slaves that they had been freed when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st,1863. And we want to add that we are not using the word “approximately” lightly here because Abraham Lincoln did not free ALL the slaves. He only freed the enslaved people in Confederate states that were rebelling against the Union. This did not apply to slave-holding Union states or Confederate states that had already succumb to Union control.
To add fuel to the fire, just because Abraham Lincoln declared enslaved people to be “forever free”, doesn’t mean that the Confederate states followed his legal ruling. As a result, Union troops had to make their way through each state, fighting against the Confederate troops, and freeing the slaves one city at a time. Since for most parts of Texas had very few Union troops present, many slave masters would flee their states to move to Texas and continue enslaving people. By the time the Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas on June 19th,1865 there were at least 250,000 enslaved people living there. While the message had been delivered on that day, many slave masters continued to withhold that information from their slaves until after harvest season had ended. It wasn’t until the adoption of the 13th Amendment in December of 1865 that slavery become officially abolished in the United States. Nonetheless, Juneteenth is still credited as being the day that the last enslaved people were freed in the U.S.
Activist, Ms. Opal Lee
Now that we know the history of the date, how long has it been being commemorated? The answer is 1866, the very next year. The newly freed men and women in Texas began celebrating the first annual “Jubilee Day” on June 19th, 1866. As the African Americans in Texas began to migrate to other parts of the country, they took with them their history, their experiences, and their Juneteenth celebratory traditions. As the celebratory traditions spread, the culture was also passed down from generation to generation. So nearly a little over a century later Texas became the first state to make Juneteenth an official holiday in 1979. As a few other states began to follow suit in a slow fashion, a push to recognize “Juneteenth Independence Day” as a federal holiday began in 1996. While Congress recognized the day that he had failed to do so officially and declare it as a National Day of Observation. It wasn’t until Opal Lee, the “grandmother of Juneteenth” walked from Fort Worth, Texas to Washington D.C. in 2016, did it begin to make true traction in the eyes of the U.S. government leaders. Nearly 156 years to the date after the last slaves were freed, President Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday on June 17th, 2021, making it the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was declared in 1986.
While grateful for the recognition at the federal level, most states have yet to recognize Juneteenth as a legal holiday with paid time off. The states that do not recognize it as an official holiday are as follows: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. If your state is on this list, we encourage you to contact your local officials to express your desire for making Juneteenth an official holiday in your state.
Our ancestors have suffered a great deal in this country. From being kidnapped from their home, to being raped, beaten, sold, dehumanized, mutilated, experimented upon, murdered, and more. Unfortunately, our ancestors still fall victim to all the above in todays modern society. So yes, it is true that we celebrate Juneteenth for the progress that was made in 1865; however, we also celebrate that day to remember the road we must face ahead!
