Civics and Juneteenth

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Next week, America celebrates Juneteenth. Juneteenth honors the end of slavery in the United States. It marks the day, June 19, 1865, when federal troops finally arrived in Galveston, Texas, to take control of the state and ensure that the state’s 250,000 slaves[1] were freed.[2] Juneteenth, the shortened version of June 19th, marks the day when emancipation finally reached those who were enslaved in the deepest parts of the former Confederacy.[3]As professor/historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr. writes, freedom was not immediate, as plantation owners had to decide whether to announce the news until the arrival of a government agent or delay the news until the end of harvest.[4]

In 1979, Texas became the first state to make Juneteenth an official holiday. On June 17, 2021, Juneteenth officially became a federal holiday[5]

The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863, by President Abraham Lincoln. The Proclamation was an executive order that freed slaves only in those states that were in rebellion to the United States.[6] Moreover, it announced the acceptance of Black men into the Union Army and Union Navy. By the end of the Civil War, almost 200,00 Black soldiers had fought for the Union.[7]

Although Confederate General Robert E. Lee had surrendered his troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia on April 9, 1865,[8] federal troops did not arrive in Texas until June 19, 1865. Because of that, the Emancipation Proclamation, issued two and a half years earlier, did not take effect in Texas until June 19, 1865, thereby enabling slavery to continue in Texas as there was no significant Union presence.[9]

On that day, Major General Gordon Granger issued the order, establishing control over Texas, that serves as the basis for the Juneteenth holiday. The order read:

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 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.

General Orders, Number 3, Headquarters District of Texas, Galveston, June 19, 1865.[10]

By the end of 1865, the 13^th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, months after the end of the Civil War. It officially ended slavery in the United States.[11]

Why is this important?

Why do we need to know this?

Neither the Emancipation Proclamation, nor Juneteenth ended slavery. The 13^th Amendment did not end discrimination. The end of the Civil War in 1865 saw a period of Reconstruction where former slaves gained a voice in government. That voice ended by 1877 when the period of Reconstruction ended. Jim Crow laws ran rampant suppressing the legal rights of Black Americans, particularly the right to vote. Literacy tests and poll taxes were imposed.[12] Ninety years later, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed to end voting practices that discriminated on the basis of color or race. However, the baseless claims of voter fraud during the 2020 general election led to a spate of laws with the sole object of suppressing voting.

Juneteenth is history. It is not only Black history, but American history. It is our history. It is a history of a struggle for rights and equality. It is a history of advancements, however incremental, and a history of achievements. Both Black and White have marched for civil rights.

But there are those today who support restrictions on discussing or teaching about matters involving race, even banning certain books that they say make them feel uncomfortable. To them, the past is the past. To them, not thinking about it means that it never happened.

That is the wrong approach. History helps us to understand and appreciate others. Learning about our history enables us to be good civic minded citizens. History helps us understand our present and serves as a guide for our future.

The key is not to live in the past, but to learn from it.