What to the Enslaved is Juneteenth? by Jonathan Lightfoot

June 19, 1865 * ALWAYS REMEMBER *** NEVER FORGET * June 19, 2020

Today is June 19^th, better known as Juneteenth. The Center for “Race,” Culture and Social Justice joins the national movement to officially recognize June 19 as a federal holiday. We honor the day when in 1865, 155 year ago today, the last known enslaved people in the state of Texas learned of their freedom. During the height of the Civil War, on September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln warned confederate rebels that if they did not end the fighting and rejoin the Union by January 1, 1863, he would issue an Emancipation Proclamation to free all enslaved people in the rebellious states.

As we all know, the Civil War did not officially end until April 9, 1865. Somehow Texas was the only confederate state that did not get the memo. Enslaved people from other confederate states had known of their emancipation from slavery for nearly two and a half years before the enslaved people in Texas did. In fact, many enslaved folks knew about Lincoln’s threat to the confederacy in September, 1862 and eagerly anticipated January 1, 1863 as the Day of Jubilee. New Year’s Eve, December 31, 1862, is still widely celebrated in many Black church communities with watchnight services, a commemorative time to ring in the New Year with celebrations of joy for their freedom.

The United States celebrates its freedom on the Fourth of July, the same day in 1776, when it declared its independence from Great Britain. The fact that enslaved people of African descent in America would not get a taste of freedom until nearly a century later, continues to be a major source of conflict and confusion among descendants of this cruel system of bondage. Two hundred and forty-four years later, in 2020, the yet to be United States of America has reached another watershed moment of profound transformation and historical significance. The COVID-19 pandemic has stripped away the façade of racial and economic equality and exposed the disparate impact the disease is having on Black and Brown people. Comorbidities, exacerbated by poverty, a lack of access to quality health care, poor education and being relegated to high-risk “essential” jobs have all worked to our detriment.

Commensurate with the global public health crisis is the worldwide uprising in response to the crisis of anti-black racism precipitated by the recent murders of unarmed Black people by white police officers. The Black Lives Matter Movement is leading the charge to defund the police and transform the nature of policing across the nation, while also making a number of other demands for America to finally address its problem with white supremacy and structural racism. For Black folks in America who are confused about which (or both) freedom day (s) to celebrate, the Fourth of July or Juneteenth, they would do well to study our history and make up their own minds. A good place to start is to read noted abolitionist, Frederick Douglass’ Fourth of July speech, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” delivered in 1852, well before the first Juneteenth of 1865. It was a scathing indictment of America’s hypocrisy and declaration that all men (people) are created equal and deserving of freedom, justice, liberty and happiness. 

The primary source document displayed here is a copy of the Military Orders read by Major General Gordon Granger to announce the news of freedom to the enslaved people of Texas. General Order Number 3 began as thus: "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 rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer."

Dr. Jonathan Lightfoot is Director of the Center for “Race,” Culture and Social Justice at Hofstra University