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June 19, 2024
Juneteenth
Today is Juneteenth in the US, and many people do not know much about the history of this day. It was not proclaimed a federal holiday until June 2021, as the nation was reeling from several high-profile police brutality cases, including Breonna Taylor’s death after a no-knock warrant, and George Floyd gasping his last words on bystanders’ videos: “I can’t breathe.”
Juneteenth was originally established in 1865 on the day Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, TX, and declared the holiday. It has also been referred to as “Emancipation Day” or “Freedom Day” in some localities. In the 159 years since that declaration, Texas communities celebrated in many ways, including prayer services and community events. Although the 13th amendment was ratified in 1865, it was difficult for groups in Texas to celebrate, and this led community organizers to purchase lands to dedicate in honor of the celebration. As freed African-Americans moved throughout the South to look for family members who had been sold in the states of Oklahoma, California, and other regions, celebrations spread with them.
Crowd in Reflecting Pool https://freedomcenter.org/voice/press_release/solidarity-now-now-open/
The celebrations waned as a result of the Great Depression and The Great Migration in the early 20th century, when communities became fragmented and struggled with poverty, unemployment, and social issues. In 1968, the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington, DC staged a 6-week long peaceful protest on the National Mall, where the Reverend Jesse Jackson was named the “mayor” of their temporary housing community, dubbed Resurrection City. The people rallied together on June 19th to celebrate Solidarity Day, bringing attention to the need for anti-poverty legislation and civil rights. Fifty thousand people attended the rally, but police broke up the crowd on June 23rd with tear gas and arrests.
In the sixty years since, Juneteenth celebrations have honored the African-American community on this day, but also have used the holiday to highlight the need for further actions for civil rights and highlight acts of injustice and violence towards the Black community. In 1980, Texas became the first state to recognize the holiday, and many states followed, but then in 2020 Kamala Harris and Cory Booker introduced legislation to make it a national holiday. President Joe Biden signed an official declaration of the holiday in 2021. Many observers have used this day to hold memorial rides or runs, and marches for the cause of equality and anti-racism, and leaders such as Kamala Harris, Angela Davis, and Al Sharpton have marked the day in the past with speeches and events commemorating the day.
Opal Lee, 94, with Kamala Harris at the Juneteenth signing (Getty Images)
For people celebrating Juneteenth, many symbolize the holiday with the color red, which can be traced back to West African culture and the values of “strength, spirituality, life, and death.” Celebrations around food feature red strawberry soda, hibiscus iced tea or punch, red beans, and barbequed lamb, pork and chicken. Some municipalities also hold community festivals with music, poetry, dancing, and cultural events.
NC State Juneteenth Celebration 2022
NC State is celebrating with a Lunch & Learn at the Hunt Library at 11:30 on Juneteenth (register here), and the Staff Senate DEI Committee has a Campus Celebration at Stafford Commons from 10:30-2 pm. There are other local events listed on the African-American Cultural Center’s site, although many of the events were this past weekend. The National Civil Rights Museum has also posted a reading list for Juneteenth if you are interested in reading about historic events, people, and important values.
NC State Juneteenth Celebration 2022
For more information about Juneteenth’s history and events, please see these sites (and h/t to these sources as research for this post):
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/solidarity-day-rally-resurrection-city-protest
https://nmaahc.si.edu/
https://voicesofthecivilrightsmovement.com/
https://www.juneteenth.com/
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