Juneteenth

Juneteenth, holiday observed annually on June 19, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. A combination of the words June and nineteenth, the holiday, also called Freedom Day, has been celebrated since 1866 and is considered to be one of the oldest continuing African American holidays. On June 17, 2021, Pres. Joe Biden signed legislation to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.

History

In 1863, during the American Civil War, Pres. Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared more than three million enslaved people living in the Confederate states to be free. (Chattel slavery remained legal in border states loyal to the Union—such as Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and West Virginia—and was not officially abolished in the United States until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment.) More than two years passed, however, before enslaved African Americans living in Texas (some 250,000) were freed. It was not until Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, and were able to enforce the edict that the state’s residents finally experienced freedom. For some—enslavers and the enslaved alike—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.

The order 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’.”

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Reactions to freedom from the formerly enslaved ranged from silent disbelief and shock to celebrations filled with prayer, feasting, song, and dance. Those celebrations formed the basis of an annual holiday that would come to have many names, including Emancipation Day, Jubilee Day, and Juneteenth.

Celebrations and traditions

The following year, on June 19, 1866, the first official Juneteenth celebrations took place in Texas. The original observances included prayer meetings and the singing of spirituals, and celebrants wore new clothes as a way of representing their newfound freedom. Black Americans claimed dedicated spaces to celebrate Juneteenth, and the first official Emancipation Park was established in Houston in 1872.

Within a few years, as Black Texans moved around the country and spread Juneteenth traditions, communities in other states began celebrating the day as well. Celebrations have continued annually across the United States into the 21st century and typically include prayer and religious services, speeches, parades, educational events, family gatherings and picnics, and festivals with music, dancing, and food. Celebrations often include a performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the unofficial Black American national anthem.

(Read Charles Blow’s Britannica essay on the Juneteenth holiday.)

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Consuming red foods and drinks is central to Juneteenth celebrations and for some African Americans represent a cultural connection to their West African heritage. The color red meant power and sacrifice in the cultural practices of West Africans affected by the transatlantic slave trade—particularly the Yoruba and Kongo—who brought their beliefs and traditions with them to their enslaved communities in the Americas. For some celebrants, red picnic items such as barbecued meats, cherry cobbler, and red sodas (usually strawberry sodas standing in for traditional drinks of hibiscus and kola nut teas) symbolize the bloodshed of enslavement and honor ancestral strength and sacrifice.

American civil rights movement and 21st-century activism

Activism has traditionally been a vital element of modern Juneteenth commemorations. Although Juneteenth celebrations declined in the 1960s—partly overshadowed by the momentum of the civil rights movement—the holiday experienced a resurgence in 1968. That year the Poor People’s Campaign, initiated by Martin Luther King, Jr., and continued by Ralph Abernathy following King’s assassination, organized a Solidarity Day in Washington, D.C., on June 19. In establishing the rally’s date, Abernathy drew on the symbolism of Juneteenth as a holiday celebrating liberation and justice. In his keynote speech, he urged lawmakers to make good on the promises the government made in 1863. Abernathy called on Congress to not only protect the freedoms of Black Americans, but to also extend wealth and opportunity to the country’s poor. The rally drew more than 50,000 participants from across the country, many of whom later revived and reimagined Juneteenth celebrations in their home states.

In the wake of George Floyd’s murder during an arrest by police officers on May 25, 2020, Juneteenth celebrations took on a new intensity and gained broader cultural significance. That year organizers affiliated with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement launched a petition to make Juneteenth a national holiday. Following Floyd’s murder, activists used Juneteenth celebrations to amplify their calls for federal recognition, demand reparations for slavery, and push for sweeping reforms in racial justice and policing. Juneteenth became a focal point for collective action, as institutions across the country—including colleges, universities, and corporations such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft—observed and celebrated Juneteenth. These widespread observances transformed Juneteenth from an African American holiday to a national moment for reflection on the country’s legacy of slavery and systemic racism.

Federal holiday

Juneteenth became a state holiday in Texas in 1980, and a number of other states subsequently followed suit. In 2021 Juneteenth was made a federal holiday (the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King, Jr., Day was established in 1983), in part because of the awareness-raising actions of BLM and individual activists, such as Opal Lee (known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth”). At the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act signing ceremony, President Biden remarked:

Juneteenth marks both the long, hard night of slavery and subjugation, and a promise of a brighter morning to come. This is a day of profound—in my view—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—what I’ve long called “America’s original sin.”…By making Juneteenth a federal holiday, all Americans can feel the power of this day, and learn from our history, and celebrate progress, and grapple with the distance we’ve come but the distance we have to travel.