Juneteenth is also known as Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day.
It is an American holiday that commemorates the June 19, 1865, announcement of the abolition of slavery in the U.S. state of Texas. It is more generally known for the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans throughout the former Confederate States of America.
During the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. It went into effect on January 1, 1863. It declared that all enslaved persons in the Confederate States of America in rebellion and not in Union hands were to be freed. This excluded the five states known later as border states, which were the four “slave states” not in rebellion – Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and Missouri – and those counties of Virginia soon to form the state of West Virginia, and also the three zones under Union occupation: the state of Tennessee, lower Louisiana, and Southeast Virginia.
More isolated geographically, Texas was not a battleground.
Thus, the Emancipation Proclamation did not affect those currently enslaved, unless they escaped. Planters and other slaveholders had migrated into Texas from eastern states to escape the fighting, and many brought enslaved people with them, increasing by the thousands the enslaved population in the state at the end of the Civil War. Although most enslaved people lived in rural areas, more than 1000 resided in both Galveston and Houston by 1860, with several hundred in other large towns. By 1865, an estimated 250,000 enslaved people lived in Texas. The older, and Hispanic, town of San Antonio had 168 among a population of 3,436.
The news of General Robert E. Lee’s surrender on April 9 reached Texas later in the month. The Army of the Trans-Mississippi did not surrender until June 2. On June 18, Union Army General Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston Island with 2,000 federal troops to occupy Texas on behalf of the federal government. The following day, standing on the balcony of Galveston’s Ashton Villa, Granger read aloud the contents of “General Order No. 3”, announcing the total emancipation of those held as slaves:
“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”
Formerly enslaved people in Galveston rejoiced in the streets after the announcement.
Though in the years afterward many struggled to work through the changes against resistance of whites. The following year, freedmen organized the first of what became the annual celebration of Juneteenth in Texas. In some cities barred African-Americans from using public parks because of state-sponsored segregation of facilities. Across parts of Texas, freed people pooled their funds to purchase land to hold their celebrations, such as Houston’s Emancipation Park, Mexia’s Booker T. Washington Park, and Emancipation Park in Austin.
Sometimes referred to as the “traditional end of slavery in Texas” the Texas Supreme Court gave the date legal status in decisions between 1868 and 1874.
In the early 20th century, economic and political forces led to a decline in Juneteenth celebrations. From 1890 to 1908, Texas and all former Confederate states passed new constitutions or amendments. Those effectively disenfranchised black people, excluding them from the political process. White-dominated state legislatures passed Jim Crow laws imposing second-class status. The Great Depression forced many black people off farms and into the cities to find work.
In these urban environments, African-Americans had difficulty taking the day off to celebrate. The Second Great Migration began during World War II. Many black people migrated to the West Coast where skilled jobs in the defense industry opened up. From 1940 through 1970, in the second wave of the Great Migration, more than 5 million black people left Texas, Louisiana and other parts of the South for the North and West Coast. As historian Isabel Wilkerson writes, “The people from Texas took Juneteenth Day to Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, and other places they went.”
By the 1950s and 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement focused the attention of African-American youth on the struggle for racial equality and the future.
Many linked these struggles to the historical struggles of their ancestors. Following the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign to Washington, DC called by Rev. Ralph Abernathy, many attendees returned home. Later, they initiated Juneteenth celebrations in areas where no one recognized the day.
Since the 1980s and 1990s, the holiday has been more widely celebrated among African-American communities. In 1994 a group of community leaders gathered at Christian Unity Baptist Church in New Orleans, Louisiana. They came together to work for greater national celebration of Juneteenth. Expatriates have celebrated it in cities abroad, such as Paris. Some US military bases in other countries sponsor celebrations, in addition to those of private groups.
The holiday is still mostly unknown outside African-American communities. But, it has gained mainstream awareness through depictions in entertainment media. Episodes of TV shows Atlanta and Black-ish, featured musical numbers about the holiday by Aloe Blacc and The Roots.
For more information and admission prices, call (843) 255-7301. hiltonhead.com/events/event/the-juneteenth-celebration/.
