Juneteenth

Today is the first time that Juneteenth is recognized as a federal holiday. President Biden signed the bill last June after the Senate unanimously passed the bill designated the day as such. 14 House Republicans from states that were part of the Confederacy voted against it.

Henceforth, June 19 (or an alternate date set in years when the 19th falls on a weekend) will be celebrated as Juneteenth, but why? What happened on this day?

It goes back to 1865 in Galveston, Texas. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in 1863, but until the Civil War ended in 1865, it was not enforced in many places. Slaveholders went on as if the law had not been passed, since they did not consider themselves citizens of the USA. 

“The Emancipation Proclamation was freeing slaves in another country. The Confederacy was a country that had their own flag, their own money. Their headquarters were in Virginia. Jefferson Davis was the president,” says Adonnica Toller, a historian who runs the Eartha M.M. White Historical Museum.

Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia in April, 1865, ending the War Between The States, but not until Union Major General Gordon Granger and his troops arrived at Galveston on June 19 of that year did the enslaved learn of their freedom.

To recognize the struggle, the word Juneteenth has been coined, a blend of "June" and "nineteenth." 

I believe that it's good to take time today to reflect on the past and honor our unique history.  As Para LaNell Agboga, museum site coordinator at the George Washington Carver Museum, Cultural and Genealogy Center in Austin, Texas, says, “Our freedoms are fragile, and it doesn’t take much for things to go backward.”

Indeed.