To put it plainly, Juneteenth might be the most locally focused event ever made a national holiday.
My family celebrated Juneteenth, which was made a state holiday by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and a national holiday by former President Joe Biden, long before George Floyd’s passing. I was born and raised in Texas.
Before many of the people who planned festivals, events, and 5K runs were even born, we celebrated Juneteenth. We didn’t have large Juneteenth parades, vendor lineups at festivals, or even the idea of turning it into a business when we were kids.
In those days, family and small group get-togethers were held to commemorate Juneteenth, neighborhood by neighborhood, block by block, and home by home. Better yet if you had a barbeque pit.
For centuries, my family celebrated Juneteenth, as did millions of other Black families in Texas and around the nation. Seeing all the events, festivals, and even a boat tour in Atlantic City earlier this month still seems a little strange to me.
As long as we remember why we are commemorating Juneteenth in the first place, all of those are acceptable. This is the date’s backstory.
Slaves in the southern states were freed by President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, but the states disregarded the directive, and during the Civil War, slaves remained in bondage.
When about 2,000 Union forces arrived in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, more than two years later, freedom finally arrived, according to the National Museum of African American History & Culture.
The Army declared that the state’s more than 250,000 Black slaves were set free by executive order. After learning of the news, the recently liberated people celebrated by coining the term Juneteenth.
Slavery was prevalent throughout the South, but Texas’s freedom was seen as a turning point for the nation. Slaveholders began relocating their slaves to Texas, the westernmost slave state, in order to keep them enslaved as the Confederacy began to lose the Civil War to the Union.
In summary, as the war dragged on, Texas became the final bastion of American slavery. During the Civil War, slaveholders who were still hoping for a Confederate victory transported over 100,000 enslaved persons from various states to Texas.
On June 19, 1866, the first anniversary of Juneteenth, former slaves came back to Galveston to join others who were already there. One of those early Juneteenth celebrations took place at Houston’s Emancipation Park, formerly known as the Colored Emancipation Park.
Booker T. Washington Park, previously Emancipation Park in Mexia, and Emancipation Park in Austin are two other conserved early Juneteenth celebration sites in Texas.
Those who had previously owned slaves had different opinions about Juneteenth. In many towns, Juneteenth celebrations were outright banned, while in others, local Whites responded to these events with violence.
Nevertheless, as a symbol of the abolition of slavery, Juneteenth festivities spread throughout Texas and later beyond. The first state to declare Juneteenth a holiday was Texas in 1980. Today, Juneteenth is celebrated in almost every state and the entire country.
The most resilient holiday ever is most likely this one. Describe another festival that was created by enslaved people, outlawed in some areas, and subsequently made a national holiday.
However, the celebration is now questionable. The federal government’s broad attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives have included Black history. How organizations, towns, companies, and others will respond to such attacks in the future is still up in the air.
What will happen to Juneteenth after the Department of Defense and numerous other federal agencies scrubbed Black History Month recognitions and events earlier this year?
It doesn’t really matter to me. You see, Juneteenth is a community event. Since it was created and developed by the people rather than by a government decree, I would contend that it is perhaps one of the most American holidays ever. All Americans celebrate Juneteenth because it represents a turning point in the country’s progress toward upholding the principles of equality and freedom outlined in its foundational texts.
In other words, community by neighborhood, block by block, and home by home, Juneteenth will endure.
