Three weeks from now (give or take a few days), the United States will celebrate its day of freedom as a sovereign nation when many gather for the observance of July 4. However in less than 24 hours, many will come together to celebrate their freedom and liberty in a different way on June Nineteenth.
Referred to as “Juneteenth,” the 19th of June is the day selected to commemorate the end of slavery. The most popular account of this day’s inception is that President Abraham Lincoln‘s Emancipation Proclamation was read to slaves in Galveston, Texas as Union General Gordon Granger issued General Order Number 3, stating “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free,” on June 19, 1865, two-and-a-half years after it was officially implemented on Jan. 1, 1863.
Many speculate that this was due to the fact that saves were deliberately kept ignorant about their liberation, but after this date, June Nineteenth was chosen as the day marking the freedom for African-Americans in the United States of America—89 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed.
“Some say that slavery was abolished in 1863, but some folks can still make the case today that Black bodies are still fighting for their freedom and we’re trying to define that narrative, of what freedom really is, ” says activist Dieudonne Brou in Boost Mobile’s “Voice of Juneteenth” YouTube series. “I think the best example I can prove is with the Black Lives Matter situation, when people like to say ‘all lives matter.’ When they say ‘all lives matter,’ they’re taking the scope away from the Black and brown people that’s really being affected.”
Since 1980, thanks to the efforts of 13-term African-American Texas state representative Al Edwards, Juneteenth has been recognized as a state holiday in Texas, and is now either recognized as an official holiday or an observed day in 43 states.
“Juneteenth is an outpouring of expression of the ending of slavery in the United States,” said Marilyn Plummer, chairwoman of the Juneteenth Celebration Committee of Lansing, Michigan as she kicked off the weekend’s celebration in her town. “It’s really a cultural celebration,” Plummer said. “It’s the joy of freedom for all Americans. …The important thing about Juneteenth is that it is a celebration that expresses a cultural mix and diversity–a reflection of freedom, but also a joyous expression of inclusion.”
