Living in NYC, you run into fewer regular ol’ Black folks than you’d expect. I mean, Black as in descendants of African slaves brought to the States during the Atlantic Slave Trade. You run into so many different expressions of the African diaspora here – Haitians, Nigerians, Panamanians, Jamaicans, Ghanaians – but it’s certainly a different experience from growing up in the South where every brown face was the descendant of someone who was brought to the US in chains.
As such, I don’t hear much about Juneteenth up here and a lot of people haven’t heard of it. Juneteenth is usually celebrated today, June 19th, so put on your Sunday shoes and picture Texas in 1865.
Sometimes I wonder what the day after slavery was like. The Emancipation Proclamation became official on January 1, 1863, but of course people in different parts of the country got the news on different days. What did that moment feel like when you realized freedom was now a tangible thing enforced by the government? The only life you’d ever known had been dictated by whites who cared naught for your safety or well-being and suddenly, you are now responsible for your own destiny.
That feeling didn’t come to Galveston, Texas until 1865. Reports differ on why. Some say it took so long because there weren’t as many Union soldiers in Texas to enforce the new Proclamation. Some say a messenger was killed on his way to town. Some say the news was intentionally withheld from the slaves. Either way, on June 19th, slavery officially ended in Galveston.
Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation – which had become official January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new Executive Order. However, with the surrender of General Lee in April of 1865, and the arrival of General Granger’s regiment, the forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome the resistance.
Later attempts to explain this two and a half year delay in the receipt of this important news have yielded several versions that have been handed down through the years. Often told is the story of a messenger who was murdered on his way to Texas with the news of freedom. Another, is that the news was deliberately withheld by the enslavers to maintain the labor force on the plantations. And still another, is that federal troops actually waited for the slave owners to reap the benefits of one last cotton harvest before going to Texas to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. All of which, or neither of these version could be true. Certainly, for some, President Lincoln’s authority over the rebellious states was in question For whatever the reasons, conditions in Texas remained status quo well beyond what was statutory.
(cont.)
As far as I know, though 47 states recognize this day as a day of observance, it’s not a public holiday. I remember the Juneteenth celebrations in Charlotte happened the weekend before or after, with lots of food and performances and activities and lots of Black people coming together to have a good time.
I still try to carry a little piece of that with me on this day. It was illegal for slaves not to appear in rags in many places, so part of celebrating Juneteenth was the freedom to dress nicely and take pride in your appearance. I spend most of the summer in t-shirts and jorts, but on June 19th I make sure to put on a shirt with buttons and find some bottoms that I didn’t cut off or wear holes into in remembrance of those who so cherished that experience.
Happy Juneteenth.
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