After the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863 during the American Civil War, over two years passed before more than 250,000 enslaved persons in Texas were freed on June 19, 1865. The first Juneteenth was celebrated one year later on June 19, 1866. The first Juneteenth was celebrated with prayer meetings and the singing of spirituals.
Ninety-nine years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, racism continued, leading to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964.
On June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed legislation designating Juneteenth a Federal holiday, giving Juneteenth the official national holiday recognition it has merited for over one and half centuries. Juneteenth is one of the oldest continuing Black African American holidays for over 156 years. The celebration of Juneteenth spread to other states throughout the country. Juneteenth is a day of celebrating freedom and reflection upon this country’s history of slavery.
Although the Emancipation Proclamation declared that all enslaved persons in Confederate territory were to be freed, it did not automatically abolish all slavery. At that time, in Confederate territory, there were more than 3,000,000 persons who were enslaved. A constitutional amendment was needed in order to enact the abolishment of all slavery, present and potential future. The 13th Amendment was necessary because slavery remained in the border states that were still loyal to the Union, e.g., Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and West Virginia, The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on December 6, 1865, abolished slavery by law.
Additionally, an issue of slavery remained in territories that would achieve the status of statehood in the future because the Emancipation Proclamation did not address the issue in territories that would later become states. Northern states controlled 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. However, 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.
After Slavery Had Been Abolished by the 13th Amendment, it Would Be a Gross Mischaracterization to State That Blacks Then Experienced “Freedom”.
Although Slavery Had Been Abolished by Law, Apartheid, as Severe as South Africa’s Apartheid at its Worst, Took Hold
POST CIVIL WAR APARTHEID AND THE CASTE SYSTEM
Apartheid, euphemistically referred to as “Jim Crow” in the United States, began at the end of the period of Reconstruction in the 1870's, post slavery.
Apartheid or “Jim Crow” was more than almost a century of the enforcement of harsh anti-Black laws. It was more than Government statutes ordering segregation by race which restricted all areas of a Black person’s life. Apartheid was a way of life. Apartheid was a culture embodying beliefs of the superiority of one race over the other in every aspect of their being. Apartheid laws were government mandated in the states of the former Confederate States of America and in some border states and other states.
Apartheid was a cultural caste system that existed between the 1870's and the mid-1960s where Black African American and anything relating to being Black African American was considered inferior. It encompassed racist beliefs as to biology, intelligence, ethics, skills, morals, and defined what comprises physical beauty. Apartheid or “Jim Crow” relegated Blacks to the status of second-class citizens. Theologians and ministers taught that God supported racial segregation so that whites would not become tainted by contacts with Blacks, unless it was in subservient relationships. Apartheid restricted where a Black person could walk, purchase food and affected medical treatments. There were harsh and violent consequences sometimes resulting in death when a Black stepped out of his caste.
The roots of government ordered apartheid in the United States was not just during slavery but continued beyond the passage of the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery, and apartheid and Jim Crow continued into the 20th century.
Post the 13th Amendment in 1865, apartheid in the US became legally enacted through harsh Black Codes, the “Jim Crow” laws.
Three years after the passage of the 14th Amendment in 1868 which attempted to stop states’ restrictions of rights of Blacks, apartheid nevertheless continued in numerous states. This government ordered strict-segregation-by-race was established by statutes and ordinances that detailed and limited every aspect of a Black person’s life, restricted their civil rights, limited their freedom of movement, where they could walk, live, prohibited them entering from stores and other commercial businesses, and their use of parks and numerous other places.
Apartheid through Black Codes Made Newly Freed Slaves a Free or Cheap Labor Source
After the abolition of slavery, many states enacted Black Codes so that newly freed slaves would be available as a free or cheap labor force. The Black Codes limited the amount of money a former slave was allowed to received receive for work. The Black Codes were a legal artifice to place newly freed Black persons into indentured servitude to obtain cheap labor for the employers and in some instances the seizing of their children for labor purposes.
The Black Codes were designed to provide free and or cheap labor force post slavery by numerous legal statutory provisions such as defining how a person could be deemed a “vagrant” and required Blacks to present in January of each year written proof of employment. If they were unable to present written proof of employment, they were deemed to be a vagrant and arrested. The arresting officer would be rewarded and paid $5.00, which money was to be taken from the vagrant’s future wages. In statutory provisions akin to the former fugitive slave laws, these provisions mandated the return of runaway workers, who would lose their wages for the year.
Many states required Blacks to make annual written contracts for their labor. If a person refused, they risked being fined, arrested, and forced into unpaid labor. If they signed a contract but ran away, they forfeited their wages for the year.
It Was an Extreme Caste System in Other Ways.
Mayors of towns and cities in which they worked required them to present licenses that gave them authorization to work and stated their place of residence. If a person was found to be a fugitive of this contractual state-enforced-labor, the police arrested him and brought him back to his employer. Although a black man forced into labor post slavery and post the 13th and 14th Amendments, was called a “freedman”, he was hardly free.
Males under the age of 21 and females under the age of 18 were apprenticed and were not excluded from these harsh apartheid laws. As was the practice and law in slavery, if the young freedman as apprentice left the employer (master’s) employment, the codes authorized the master to pursue and recapture the young person. If the young person refused to return without just cause, she/ he could be arrested and imprisoned. White persons could earn a living by locating these escapees from forced labor. They were paid $5.00 a person and mileage fees for finding and returning the escapee to the employer.
Apartheid Prevented Former Enslaved Persons from Earning Money by Farming.
Mississippi was the first state to legislate a new “Black Code” after the Civil war. It restricted Blacks to rent land only within a city or town limit which had the effect of preventing them from earning money through farming, and farming was a main thing in their work history as former enslaved persons.
A mayor of town or police could require a working black to show their license authorizing them to work and where they lived. Fugitives from labor were to be arrested and carried back to their employers. White persons were severely penalized if they attempted to interfere in this caste system. It was a misdemeanor crime for a person to have persuaded a “freedman” to leave his employer, or to feed food to a runaway freedman. A violation of this was a misdemeanor and punishable by fine or imprisonment.
Persons deemed vagrants were fined heavily, and if they could not pay the sum, they were to be hired out to perform work for another until the claim was satisfied. It was an offence, to be punished by a fine of $50 and imprisonment for thirty days, to give or sell intoxicating liquors to a Black. If a Black could not pay the fines after legal proceedings, he was to be hired according to the public outcry by the local law enforcement to the person giving the lowest bid.
Apartheid flourished in many states well into the 20th century, see NJ Employment Attorney, Historical Racism Part VIII, Voter Suppression and Literacy Tests Administered Into the 1960's, making a dangerous passage for blacks who veered outside of their own neighborhoods and cultural sociological boundaries. Apartheid in the 20th century made any stepping out of Jim Crow culture dangerous. See NJ Employment Attorney, Historical Racism Part VI, 1936 Green Book: The Black Travelers’ Guide to Jim Crow America and the Freedom Riders. Jim Crow laws were officially outlawed in 1964 with the Civil Rights Act, although some still were in effect.
When on June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed legislation designating Juneteenth a Federal Holiday, it gave Juneteenth the long overdue nationwide solemnity it deserves. Juneteenth is a day of celebration and reflection upon this country’s history of slavery and racism.
Today in addition to Juneteenth, there is a second Federal holiday remembering and honoring the history of Black Americans, Martin Luther King Jr. Day., that was first celebrated in 1986. It is observed on the third Monday of January each year. King was the prolific civil rights leader for nonviolent activism in the Civil Rights Movement, which protested racial discrimination in federal and state laws and the oppressive Jim Crow culture.
Some states have designated certain dates honoring the legacy of Black African Americans, such as Rosa Parks Day on February 4 or December 1, and Harriet Tubman Day on March 10.
There are a few official municipal holidays such as Liberation and Freedom Day, March 3 of every year. On July 1, 2019, the City Council of Charlottesville, Virginia, established a new city holiday, Liberation and Freedom Day, to be celebrated on March 3. Union Army troops, under the command of Major General Philip Sheridan, arrived in Charlottesville on March 3, 1865, liberating over 14,000 enslaved workers.
Liberation and Freedom Day is still celebrated in 2025 in Charlottesville, Virginia. It is officially recognized as a city holiday on March 3rd, commemorating the arrival of Union troops in 1865 and the liberation of over 14,000 enslaved people. The city celebrates with various events and activities, including a week-long series of events.
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