Juneteenth

Is now a state and federal holiday in this nation. Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill making it a holiday in Illinois and President Joe Biden made it a federal holiday. Capitol Fax has decided to take today off as June 19, 2021 falls on the weekend.

Either way I first heard of this holiday not during grade school but during that era. It seemed there used to be festivals in the neighborhood around this time where there were carnivals and some flyers were being handed around discussing "Juneteenth". It probably didn't connect what that meant at the time, but I'm sure Juneteenth marked the end of slavery in America.

As you might see in this Newsalert post Juneteenth was actually when the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed which was on December 6, 1865. The 13th Amendment to the constitution codified the end of slavery in the United States. So now it begs the question where did Juneteeth come from?

Well this Washington Post article sheds some light on this which you will find in the above Newsalert link:

The National Archives on Thursday located what appears to be an original handwritten “Juneteenth” military order informing thousands of people held in bondage in Texas they were free.

The decree, in the ornate handwriting of a general’s aide, was found in a formal order book stored in the Archives headquarters building in Washington. It is dated June 19, 1865, and signed by Maj. F.W. Emery, on behalf of Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger.

“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, ‘all slaves are free,’ ” the order reads.

“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.”

I suggest you read the whole article, basically this Juneteenth celebration is really a Texas thing. Not a national thing at least at first then it became widespread. 

We've been hearing a lot about this as of late especially during the unrest of the past summer. It seems public attention are on the racial issues and to pay respects to the Black community and perhaps more so than in my memory. Juneteenth I believe was discussed last year more so than in my memory and now it's a public holiday. So back to that Newsalert post Juneteenth is now considered another "woke" scam.

These days you hear about "Critical Race Theory" and "systemic racism". You're hearing from our President and Vice-President rail against the issues of systemic racism. Much more recently Gov. Pritzker discussed it as around America it's getting a look and some more conservative states are moving to ban its teaching in K-12 classrooms.

Perhaps the "wokeness" of Juneteenth is more or less about placating Black Americans to the extent that they're able to. I have no issue with this being a holiday if I was still in school this would be just another day off and I enjoy those. I just hope it encourages people to do some historical research on racial issues in America.

Don't just focus on what's been said in the press for example. We have this world wide web to look up information on Juneteenth and the end of slavery in America and certainly the successes of the 1950-60s Civil Rights movement.

I would also encourage you to check out this op/ed from the New York Daily News which views this focus on Juneteenth as a distraction and the focus should be on the 13th Amendment.