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June 1, 2021, Honor Juneteenth by Teaching Juneteenth
June 1, 2021, Honor Juneteenth by Teaching Juneteenth
As a challenging year in education is winding down, History’s Mysteries wants to draw your attention to a timely History’s Mysteries lesson on Juneteenth and suggest you might want to use it in your classroom in the coming weeks. In our mystery, “How does a tradition become a holiday?” students learn about the history of Juneteenth through rich primary sources. They explore the history of African American resistance and joy that are interwoven in the celebration. As states across the country, including our home state of Massachusetts, continue to adopt this as an official state holiday, let’s help our students understand the historic importance of this day.
In Massachusetts, our friend and amazing scholar Dr. Amilcar Shabazz, from the University of Massachusetts, worked to have the state recognize Juneteenth as a holiday. June 19, 2021 will be the first time it is celebrated as a holiday there. W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies
https://www.loc.gov/item/2007660042/
Billy McCrea, a former slave who remembered the Union troops coming into Texas in 1865 and being told that he was free. Photo by Ruby Terrill Lomax, September 30, 1940.
History of Juneteenth Shows Both Joy and Resistance
As students help solve this Juneteenth mystery of how and why the tradition of Juneteenth has become a holiday across America, they will learn some of the following history:
On January 1, 1863, the well known Emancipation Proclamation announced that all enslaved people in the rebelling Confederate states were free from enslavement, but not everyone in the Confederate states would be immediately free. Many territories were still under Confederate control. As word spread quickly in the South, many enslaved people organized and fled to aid Union troops. However, in the most westerly state of Texas, many people would remain enslaved until June 19, 1865, when General Gordon Granger marched to Galveston Bay, Texas accompanied by 2000 Union soldiers, many of them African Americans. There Granger read General Executive Order Number 3 to finally free the 250,000 people who had been kept enslaved for two and half years despite the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. Immediately, there was joy and celebration in the African American community around Galveston. This day, June 19th, became known as Juneteenth across Texas and then across the United States, as people celebrated emancipation by having parades, gathering with friends and family, eating red foods, and sharing history and traditions. Juneteenth became a holiday of both the joy of freedom and continued resistance against racism. Many argue it was just the beginning of emancipation from 250 years of American enslavement.
Emancipation Park, 2020, Photo credits: Edward Aaron Arispe. Thanks to our friend Edward for taking these pictures just for History's Mysteries!
Emancipation Park: A Story of Celebration and Agency
In June 2021, South Dakota may be the only remaining state to not recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday, but, as students will learn in our mystery, Juneteenth celebrations of freedom and emancipation were not always accepted. Early resistance to the celebration and a desire to have a permanent place to celebrate Juneteenth in Houston, Texas, led to community organizing. Reverend Jack Yates, Richard Allen, Richard Brock, and Reverend Elias Dibble united their community of formerly enslaved people to raise $1,000 in 1872 to purchase 10 acres of land to be named Emancipation Park. For many years, the park would open for grand celebrations on Juneteenth, but remained closed for most of the year due to lack of funds to keep it open. The city purchased and made it a public park in 1916. During the many decades of segregation in Texas, Emancipation Park was the only park in Houston open to African Americans. The park has a long history as a place where people celebrate the joy of emancipation and the continued resistance to racism. Today the park is a place of fun, history, and culture for the people of Houston and its many visitors. The story of Juneteenth and Emancipation Park show the agency and struggle African Americans have faced even to simply celebrate freedom. The story of Juneteenth is a story of a second American Independence and, at History’s Mysteries, we believe it is important for all of our students to know the history.
For more information about Emancipation Park visit the Emancipation Park Conservancy
Here are some additional resources for teaching Juneteenth in elementary classrooms including picture books.
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