Juneteenth

If I'm being honest I didn't know about Juneteenth until the last few years. That's on me, or my education, but it should never be too late to learn things. When I heard it was becoming a new Federal holiday my immediate thoughts were largely snide (do we really need more holidays? why are we just doing this now? can we rename it?). On all that I'll admit being wrong, because Juneteenth should absolutely be a day recognized nationwide.

Why? Well Juneteenth, taking place annually on June 19th, commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States. It took a horribly bloody war to finally end our nation's original sin, but end it did. And I can't think of an event since the founding that was a larger step toward the supposed universal ideals established in the Declaration of Independence.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prior to the Emancipation Proclamation (and the eventual 13th Amendment) slaves had no liberty, no freedom to pursue their own happiness and certainly gave no consent to be governed. I'd point to this as a clear example of the government being destructive to a segment of the population and requiring a change. Of course just freeing the slaves didn't fix everything, and it took another 100 often nasty years to address segregation and civil rights and we still deal with residual effects today, but Lincoln's order was a massively significant moment in United States history.

As for the history of the holiday, it started in Texas in 1865. Though the initial Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1862, following the battle of Antietam, it usually took Union troops physically entering the southern states to enforce it. Texas, the farthest away slave state, wasn't reached until 1865 after Appomattox and the Confederacy's collapse. It was Union General Gordon Granger who proclaimed General Order No. 3 in Galveston, officially and forever ending slavery in Texas and the former Confederacy at large on June 19th, 1865.

Plaque in Galveston

The following year and onward local 'Emancipation Day' gatherings have been held on the anniversary, first only in Texas before spreading across the South and elsewhere, and have been a big deal in many black communities ever since. In this way it was a naturally developed holiday that grew solely because of its importance to people, not because it was planned by some government official. Later called Juneteenth, the holiday saw a pretty major decline in the early 20th century before a revival that intertwined it with the Civil Rights Movement. Today a large part of the observance relates to African American culture and political progress. Though I haven't read it anywhere, the name makes more sense considering the holiday was usually held on the third Saturday in June (almost always a day in the teens) instead of fixed on the 19th (as it will now).

Let's look at the Federal holidays we have:

- New Years Day (1/1) -> new calendar year

- MLK Jr. Day (floating Jan) -> Martin Luther King's birthday

- Presidents Day (floating Feb) -> Washington's (and Lincoln's) birthday

- Memorial Day (floating May) -> remembering those who died at war

- *Juneteenth* (6/19) -> ending of slavery

- Independence Day (7/4) -> independence from Britain

- Labor Day (floating Sept) -> laborers and labor movement

- Columbus Day (floating Oct) -> discovery of the Americas by Europeans

- Veterans Day (11/11) -> thanking military service members (and Armistice Day)

- Thanksgiving Day (floating Nov) -> harvest and thankfulness

- Christmas Day (12/25) -> winter solstice and the birth of Christ

Juneteenth fits in the list of American holidays quite well with how much we love independence and seek to remember those that fought and died for it. Frankly it's a better holiday than MLK Day though obviously that's not going away. Did you know Columbus Day is still technically a Federal holiday? I didn't.

From @iowahawkblog on Twitter (click for tweet)

So, I don't think America is an irredeemable or inherently racist country. I won't be out agitating or joining protest organizations. And yet I think adding Juneteenth as a Federal holiday is undoubtedly great, not least as a recognition of the leap forward in the fulfillment of those original American ideals. Most likely the day will continue be more important to black Americans than white ones and that's okay. Hopefully we can all agree the ending of slavery is something worth celebrating, together, because freedom always deserves a party.