Juneteenth
June 19, 2022
Juneteenth flag , Boston City Hall
On June 17th, 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday.
The PBS NewHour segment on June 17, 2o21, discussing the significance of the signing (right).
Context, from the recent past, prior to the designation as a federal holiday .... 2018, 2019, 2020
"The animating spirit of Juneteenth is well encapsulated by James Weldon Johnson’s “Lift Ev’ry Voice And Sing.” “We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,” Johnson wrote. “Out from the gloomy past / Till now we stand at last / Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.” The song is at once brutal and intrinsically hopeful."
...Vann R. Newkirk II, The Atlantic, June 19, 2018
"For decades, the successes of the civil-rights movement elevated the jubilation. But in recent years, the tenor of Juneteenth has changed. Black Americans see more clearly just how deep white supremacy rests in the country’s bones. The sorrow now predominates, and with it comes an urgency to hold power to account, and to remember who and what is owed."
...Vann R. Newkirk II, The Atlantic, June 19, 2019
"Juneteenth exists as a counterpoint to the Fourth of July; the latter heralds the arrival of American ideals, the former stresses just how hard it has been to live up to them."
...Jelani Cobb, The New Yorker, June 19, 2020
2022
All 50 states either commemorate or observe Juneteenth but only 18 observe it as a permanent paid state holiday, those being Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine Massachusetts, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
USA Today, June 16, 2022, includes a pleasant video, then goes on to detail efforts in a number of states to eliminate classroom discussion of slavery and the role of systemic racism in the US.
