What is celebrated in ‘Juneteenth’ and how did it become a holiday in the US?

Americans will soon celebrate June 16, marking the day the last enslaved people in America learned they were free.

For generations, African Americans have joyfully acknowledged the end of one of the darkest chapters in American history with parades, festivals, and musical performances or cookouts.

The US government was slow to seize the opportunity: it was not until 2021 that the president Joe Biden signed a bill passed by Congress to reserve June 19 as a federal holiday.

And just as many people learn what Juneteenth (also known as Emancipation Day) is all about, the holiday traditions are facing new pressures: political rhetoric condemning efforts to teach Americans about the nation’s racial history, companies that use the holiday as a marketing event, people who celebrate without understanding why.

Here’s a look at the origins of Juneteenth, how it became a federal holiday, and more about its history.

How did Juneteenth start?

It started with enslaved people in Galveston, Texas. Although President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in 1863, it was not enforced in many places in the South until the Civil War ended in 1865. Even then, some whites were reluctant to share the news.

Laura Smalley, freed from a plantation near Bellville, Texas, recalled in a 1941 interview that the man she referred to as “old master” came home from fighting in the Civil War and did not tell enslaved people what what had happened

“The old master didn’t say, you know, they were free,” Smalley said. “I think now they say they worked six months after that. Six months. And they were released on June 19. That’s why we celebrate that day.”

News that the war was over and that they were free finally reached Galveston when Union Major General Gordon Granger and his troops arrived in the Gulf Coast city on June 19, 1865, more than two months after for Confederate General Robert E. Lee to surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia.

Granger delivered General Order No. 3, which read: “The people of Texas are informed that, pursuant to a proclamation of the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This implies an absolute equality of personal rights and property rights between former masters and slaves, and the hitherto existing connection between them becomes that between the employer and wage labor.

Slavery was permanently abolished six months later, when Georgia ratified the 13th Amendment. The following year, the free people of Galveston began celebrating June 19, a celebration that has continued and spread throughout the world.

What does Juneteenth mean?

It is a mixture of the words June and 19 (nineteen in English). The holiday has also been called Juneteenth, Independence Day, Freedom Day, Second Independence Day, and Emancipation Day.

The celebration began with picnics and speeches at church, and spread as black Texans moved elsewhere.

Most US states now celebrate Juneteenth as a holiday or recognition day, such as Flag Day. Juneteenth is a paid holiday for state employees in Texas, New York, Virginia, Washington and now Nevada as well. Hundreds of companies give workers the day off.

Opal Lee, a former teacher and activist, is largely credited for rallying others in a campaign to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. The 96-year-old woman had vivid memories of celebrating Juneteenth in East Texas when she was a child, complete with music, food and games. In 2016, the “old lady in sneakers” walked through her hometown of Fort Worth, Texas, and then through other cities before arriving in Washington, DC Soon celebrities and politicians endorsed her.

Lee was one of the people who stood with Biden when he signed the law making Juneteenth a federal holiday.

What has been the evolution of the celebrations?

The national reckoning over race sparked by the 2020 police killing of George Floyd helped set the stage for Juneteenth to become the first new federal government holiday since 1983, when Martin’s Day was created. Luther King Jr.

The bill was sponsored by Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and had 60 co-sponsors, a show of bipartisan support as lawmakers struggled to overcome divisions that are still simmering three years later.

There is now a movement to use the holiday as an opportunity for activism and education, with community service projects aimed at addressing racial disparities and educational panels on topics like health care inequities and the need for parks and green space.

Like most holidays, Juneteenth has also seen its fair share of commercialism. Retailers, museums and other venues have capitalized on it by selling Juneteenth-themed T-shirts, party supplies and ice cream. Some of the marketing has failed, causing rejection on social media.

Supporters of the holiday have also worked to make sure people don’t forget why the day exists.

“In 1776, the country was freed from the British, but not all people were free,” Dee Evans, national director of communications for the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation, said in 2019. “June 19, 1865 was actually when the people and the whole country were really free.”

There is also the sentiment of using the day to remember the sacrifices that were made for freedom in America, especially in these days fraught with racism and politics.

“Our liberties are fragile and it doesn’t take much to set things back,” said LaNell Agboga, museum site coordinator at the George Washington Carver Museum Genealogy and Cultural Center in Austin, Texas.

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