Juneteenth (short for June 19th) honors the date in 1865, when federal Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people were freed. It is the oldest celebration of the ending of slavery in the United States.
More than two years earlier, The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, establishing that all enslaved people in Confederate states “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”
Despite the orders in 1865, emancipation didn’t happen overnight – in some cases, enslavers withheld the information until after harvest season or until Union troops arrived at their property. Finally, in December 1865, slavery in America was formally abolished with the adoption of the 13th Amendment.
The next year, freedmen in Texas organized the first of what became the annual celebration of “Jubilee Day” on June 19, 1866.
Why not celebrate on July 4th? Frederick Douglass declared on July 5, 1852: “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. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity.”
Further reading:
- Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
- Four Hundred Souls by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain
- The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
- How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- Rachel by Angelina Weld Grimke (the first known play written, produced, and acted by Black creatives)
How can we celebrate?
- Make June 19th an annual day of reflection or conversation that celebrates emancipation
- Reflect on Black history in the U.S. and the recent and on-going killings of unarmed Black people
- Celebrate and recognize the contributions of Black people in America
- Buy or donate books about Juneteenth or Black history and share them with local school districts
Republished from The Studio Theatre Tierra del Sol Instagram 2021.
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