Juneteenth traces its origins back to Galveston, Texas, where on June 19th, 1865, Union Soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed in the city with news that the Civil War had ended and the enslaved people were now free.

The Juneteenth flag commemorates the day that slavery ended in the US. The red, white, and blue represent the American flag and stand as a reminder that the enslaved people and their descendants were and are Americans. The star represents the freedom of African Americans in all 50 states.

One of General Granger’s first orders of business was to read General Order Number 3 to the people of Texas. “The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer.”

General Order No. 3

While announcing the end of slavery, General Order No. 3 was conservative and paved the way for the continuation of similar master-slave relations by encouraging newly freed Blacks to stay with their previous owners. It reads: “The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”

This pointed to the future relationship between Blacks and Whites within the United States, as the fight for power and true freedom was long from over for Blacks.

In 1863, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared more than three million enslaved people living in the Confederate states to be free. More than two years would pass before the news reached African Americans living in Texas. It was not until union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, on June 19th, 1865, that the state’s residents finally learned that slavery had been abolished. The former enslaved people immediately began to celebrate with prayer, feasting, song and dance.

The post-emancipation period known as Reconstruction (1865-1877) marked an era of great hope, uncertainty, and struggle for the nation. Formerly enslaved people immediately sought to re-unify families, establish schools, run for political office, push radical legislation, and even sue slave holders for compensation. Given the 200 years of enslavement, such changes were nothing short of amazing. Not even a generation out of slavery, African Americans were inspired and empowered to transform their lives and their country.

During Radical Reconstruction, which began with the passage of the Reconstruction Act of 1867, newly enfranchised Black people gained a voice in government for the first time in American history. They won elections in southern state legislatures and even in the U.S. Congress. In less than a decade, reactionary forces – including the Klu Klux Klan – would reverse the changes wrought by Radical Reconstruction in a violent backlash that restored white supremacy in the South, in part of a process known as Redemption.

13th Amendment

a. “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction” -- Section 1

b. The 13th Amendment marks the official end of slavery, as states such as Kentucky and Delaware were not included in the Emancipation Proclamation since they had never seceded from the Union, and therefore the enslaved people in those states were not freed.

c. The 13th Amendment was and is celebrated for being the final nail in the coffin for the institution of slavery. However, the clause “except as a punishment for a crime” keeps slave-labor alive through the prison-industrial complex, where Black men make up a disproportionate amount of the prisoners.

For some, it’s eating barbecue, shooting fireworks, song and dance, special church services, gathering at a cookout and sipping on red drinks (a tradition that symbolizes perseverance and honors the blood that was shed by African Americans). For others, it’s shopping only at Black-owned businesses, sharing history, or resting at home.

Many enslaved people knew that songs held secret meanings in their lyrics. For example, Harriet Tubman used the song “Wade in the Water” to tell escaping slaves to get off the train and into the water to make sure the slave catchers’ dogs couldn’t sniff out their trail.

He did not care for Black people and by today’s standards he would be seen as a racist. But, by the standards of his times, he was relatively progressive.

While he did issue the Emancipation Proclamation, Abe’s thoughts had always been against the expansion of slavery but not about abolition itself. He issued the Proclamation out of a military necessity, and stipulated that if the Confederacy surrendered, he would revoke the Proclamation. The Proclamation also only included slaves in the seceded states, and not in the border states that remained in the Union.

He was originally a colonialist, preferring that freed Blacks be deported to Liberia rather than integrated into American society, but eventually turned towards integration and enlisted the help of prominent Black orator Frederick Douglass to find ways to make it work.

Juneteenth celebrations in the United States declined in the 1960s, overshadowed by the Civil Rights Movement. The holiday began to regain its importance in 1968 when the Poor People’s Campaign, originally led by Martin Luther King, Jr., held a Juneteenth Solidarity Day. Interest in Juneteenth continued to increase in the following decades, and the first state-sponsored Juneteenth celebration was held in Texas in 1980.

On June 17, 2021, President Biden signed legislation that established Juneteenth as a federal holiday. This was long-overdue and does not make up for the continuation of anti-Black racism but was one small step in the fight for change. Juneteenth is officially known as “Juneteenth National Independence Day.”

Same story every time, being Back is still a crime.

Revolts of the Enslaved

i. New York City Slave Uprising, 1712

ii. The Stono Rebellion, 1739

iii. New York City Slave Conspiracy, 1741

iv. Gabriel Prosser Revolt, 1800

v. Igbo Landing Mass Suicide, 1803

vi. Andry’s Rebellion, 1811

vii. Denmark Vesey Conspiracy, 1822

viii. Nat Turner Revolt, 1831

ix. Amistad Mutiny, 1831

x. Creole Case, 1841

xi. Slave Revolt in the Cherokee Nation, 1842

Antebellum Urban Violence

i. Cincinnati Riots, 1829

ii. Anti-Abolition Riots, 1834

iii. The Pennsylvania Hall Fire, 1838

iv. Christina (Pennsylvania) Riot, 1851

d. Civil War, Reconstruction, and Post-Reconstruction Era Violence

i. Detroit Race Riot, 1863

(NOT COMPLETE LIST)

Juneteenth may mark an official end to slavery, but the fight continues. Columbia University professor and prominent Black Studies Scholar Saidiya Hartman emphasizes the “nonevent of emancipation” for its failure to address the majority of the racial ills that plague our nation even now. The structures in place still subjugate black people and other people of color, and we must tear them down completely if we want to see proper and long-lasting change.

Juneteenth has gone by other names in the past, also being called: Jubilee Day, Freedom Day, Second Independence Day, Emancipation Day, Cel-Liberation Day among other names.

“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.”

We must always ask ourselves what freedom really means to us. If everybody is not free, is anybody free? As Martin Luther King Jr. said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Four men who were formerly enslaved, Richard Allen, Richard Brock, Jack Yates, and Elias Dibble, raised around $800, to buy a plot of land to use to celebrate Juneteenth. It is called Emancipation Park, and is located in Houston, Texas, where it continues to hold Juneteenth celebrations every year.

Juneteenth is not just a celebration of freedom, but it is a chance to express historical and cultural pride of Blackness within the US, and to look toward a better future that we can make together. It is a day of celebration, dance, song, and enjoyment, and it is also a chance to reflect on where we are within the world now, and where we can get to tomorrow.