Juneteenth is a day of national recognition and reflection upon this country’s legacy of slavery and systemic racism
Background History of Juneteenth
In 1863, as the nation approached its third year of civil war, President Abraham Lincoln issued The Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863 during the American Civil War. It declared that all enslaved persons in Confederate territory were to be freed. There were more than three million enslaved persons living in the Confederate territory at that time. The Emancipation Proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."
Contrary to popular belief, the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery throughout the nation. The Emancipation Proclamation had to be followed by a constitutional amendment in order to guarantee the abolishment of slavery. The 13th Amendment was necessary because the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln in January of 1863, did not entirely end slavery. In spite of Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, in the border states that were still loyal to the Union, e.g., Kentucky, Missouri, Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia, chattel slavery remained. Persons enslaved in border states had not been freed. It was not until the ratification of the 13th Amendment on December 6, 1865, that slavery was abolished by law.
The Emancipation Proclamation also did not address the issue of slavery in territories that would become states in the future. Northern states controlled the the U.S. Congress late in the American Civil War and proposed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution to abolish slavery throughout the entire country. But several states rejected it, and the adoption 13th Amendment had to wait for the re-admission of southern states into the Union in the months following the end of the American Civil War.
Although Juneteenth marks June 19, 1865, the date when Black slaves in Texas were told about their freedom, at that point the 13th Amendment had not been ratified. Slavery in the United States was not officially abolished until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. LINK)
After the Emancipation Proclamation, more than two years passed before enslaved persons living in Texas (over 250,000 enslaved persons in Texas) were freed.
News Traveled Slow
It was not until Union soldiers on June 19, 1865, arrived in Galveston, Texas, and enforced the edict that the Texas enslaved persons finally experienced freedom. This was more than a year after the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued. News traveled slow in those times, and some enslavers had likely heard about the Emancipation Proclamation but treated it as rumors and did not spread the news as it was not in their economic interest.
For both the enslaved persons and their enslavers, it was through Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger’s General Order No. 3 that they first learned that slavery had been abolished in the Confederate states. Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger’s General Order No. 3 read, in part: “The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, ‘all slaves are free’.”
Juneteenth was originally celebrated in Texas, on June 19, 1866, more than two years after Emancipation Proclamation was initially issued, and one year after that enslaved persons in Texas first learned about the Emancipation Proclamation.
Juneteenth, June 19, 1866, marked the first celebratory anniversary of the day, June 19, 1865, when enslaved persons in Texas first learned about the Emancipation Proclamation and that they had been freed.
Juneteenth was originally observed with prayer meetings and by singing spirituals and celebrated wearing new clothes to represent newfound freedom. Within a few years, Blacks and descendants of former enslaved persons were celebrating Juneteenth in other states, making it an annual tradition.
With the abolition of slavery, harsh racism did not end. See NJ Employment Attorney, Historical Racism Part V, Forced Labor and Black Codes Post 14th Amendment.
The Transformation of Juneteenth to a Broader Recognition
Juneteenth, also called Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Black Independence Day, has been celebrated since 1866 and is considered to be one of the oldest continuing Black African American holidays. Although former enslaved persons and their descendants celebrated Juneteenth for over 156 years, the holiday was never given the official national holiday recognition it deserved until on June 17, 2021, when President Joe Biden signed legislation to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder during an arrest by police officers on May 25, 2020, Juneteenth celebrations took on a wider magnitude, gained a new national vigor and grew to a broader, serious, cultural recognition. Following Floyd’s murder, civil rights activists used Juneteenth celebrations to amplify their calls for sweeping reforms in racial justice and police practices throughout the U.S. Juneteenth was becoming transformed from a primarily Black African American celebration to a holiday that is a national moment of reflection on the country’s legacy of slavery and systemic racism.
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