Thursday, June 18, 2020

Juneteenth

Juneteenth, which takes place on June 19th every year, is the oldest celebration of the end of slavery in the United States, and it began in Texas.
Juneteenth Celebration held in Austin, TX in 1900. 
Stephenson, Mrs. Charles (Grace Murray). [Emancipation Day Celebration, June 19, 1900], photograph, June 19, 1900; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth124053/m1/1/: accessed June 18, 2020), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
The Emancipation Proclamation, which came into effect on January 1st, 1863, declared that "..all persons held as slaves within any state...the people whereof shall than be in rebellion against the United States; shall be...forever free... ." This meant that slaves in states that were part of the Confederacy (which included Texas) were legally declared free. However, the US government did not have control of Texas at that time, as the Civil War was still ongoing, and therefore slavery continued there for the next two years.  

 On June 19, 1865 Union forces landed in Galveston, TX, and Major General Gordon Granger read General Order No. 3 which stated: 
"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."

Ashton Villa, Galveston, TX. Location where Major General Granger read General Order No. 3.
Jim Evans [Ashton Villa], photograph, June 9, 2012. Licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
The first known celebration of Juneteenth happened the following year in 1866 and continues to the present day. The celebration started among the African American community of Texas, but spread around the country as African American Texans moved to other locations and brought the tradition with them. 

In 1980, Texas became the first state to recognize the holiday. Since then, 45 states and the District of Columbia have recognized the holiday. It is still not a federal holiday, but there is a movement to get it recognized as such. 

The library has several resources for learning more about Juneteenth: 

Juneteenth by Lynn Peppas
Juneteenth Texas: Essays in African American Folklore by Francis Edward Abernethy (editor)
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)