EDITORIAL: Recognizing the importance of Juneteenth
Today is Juneteenth and millions of Americans still lack an understanding of the holiday’s significance. Here is a brief history:
Juneteenth National Independence Day commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, two months after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia.
Although President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in 1863, it could not be enforced in many places in the South until the Civil War ended. But even then, some white people who had profited from their unpaid labor did not immediately share the news about that freedom with those whom they controlled.
Back then, of course, there were no mass media to disseminate important developments; it even took some time for news of the Confederacy’s surrender to blanket the North and South.
Even though for generations Black Americans have recognized and celebrated the end of one of the United States’ darkest chapters by way of parades, street festivals, cookouts, musical events and other activities, the U.S. government was slow to embrace – or otherwise give official recognition to – that important happening.
The national reckoning over race set in motion by the 2020 murder of George Floyd by police helped set the stage for Juneteenth to become the first new federal holiday since 1983. That was the year when Martin Luther King Jr. Day was created.
Then in June 2021, after both Houses of Congress passed legislation to create the 12th federal holiday, President Joe Biden affixed his signature to the measure, saying he believed it would be one of the greatest honors of his presidency.
While signing the measure, he said, “This is a day of profound weight and profound power, a day in which we remember the moral stain, the terrible toll that slavery took on the country and continues to take.”
He then commented that “I hope this is the beginning of a change in the way we deal with one another.”
There has been some progress on that front, but new pressures have evolved that are not in line with what this holiday is – or should be – about. We are referring to the political rhetoric condemning efforts to teach Americans about this nation’s racial history.
Hopefully, that setback only will be temporary. However, people of this country should watch developments carefully and clearly express their opposition to such developments.
Quashing the truth is not what America should be about. The nation – and Americans – cannot truly move forward on a foundation of not knowing the truth.
Indeed, join in on this holiday’s celebrations. Let others know that you know – and appreciate – why this holiday is important.