{"id":579254,"date":"2023-06-19T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-19T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/juneteenth-the-long-road-to-becoming-a-federal-holiday\/"},"modified":"2023-06-19T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-06-19T10:00:00","slug":"juneteenth-the-long-road-to-becoming-a-federal-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/juneteenth-the-long-road-to-becoming-a-federal-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"#Juneteenth: The long road to becoming a federal holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/Juneteenth_06192021_AP21171242233079.png?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Sue Johnson was born and raised in Galveston, Texas, a city on the Gulf Coast. She still remembers every year when she and her family would pack up the car and head to the beach for a day of celebration to commemorate America\u2019s second independence day: Juneteenth.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So when the day became America\u2019s newest federal holiday in 2021, she was thrilled.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cI was as jubilant as many,\u201d said Johnson,\u00a0founder and executive director of Galveston\u2019s Nia Cultural Center.\u00a0 \u201cI was very h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>y that it will be commemorated throughout the country \u2026 and I was also curious to see how it would play out in the new arena of being nationally sanctioned.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Juneteenth is recognized on June 19 to commemorate the last of the enslaved peoples being freed in Galveston by Union forces. Though the city of Galveston has celebrated the holiday since 1866, the push to make the day a federal holiday dates back more than 100 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On June 19, 1865, Gordon Granger issued <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General<\/a> Order No. 3, which declared, \u201cThe people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>President Abraham Lincoln had legally freed the enslaved in Texas more than two years previously with the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. But for the nearly 250,000 enslaved people in Galveston, they had no idea they had been freed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe information hadn\u2019t reached them yet,\u201d said Kabria Baumgartner, associate professor of History and Africana Studies and associate director of Public History at Northeastern University.<\/p>\n<p>But that doesn\u2019t mean the order was necessarily accepted by parts of the Confederacy. Some\u00a0enslavers continued to keep the information from those they had enslaved, utilizing the forced labor for one more harvest season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThere was pushback in other parts of the Confederacy, even though it became pretty clear at that point that the Confederacy had lost the war,\u201d Baumgartner said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, though, the emancipation of enslaved peoples was accepted.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Early Juneteenth celebrations were primarily held in Texas following General Order No. 3.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cAfrican Americans, even then, referred to it as a freedom celebration,\u201d Baumgartner said. \u201cAnd then from there, the holiday spread to other parts of the south into Oklahoma, and then California and Wisconsin by the 20th century, and it became a wider celebration.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a>paper articles from these early celebrations recount African Americans celebrating the day with a dinner and discussion and marches through the street.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Then, in 1872, a group of Houston African American ministers and businessmen bought 10 acres of land and declared the property\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/epconservancy.org\/\">Emancipation Park<\/a>\u00a0to be used for annual Juneteenth celebrations.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr4_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cBy the 20th Century, it\u2019s some of the same forms of celebration: food and music and conversation,\u201d Baumgartner said. \u201cAnd people are referring to it as Black People\u2019s Independence Day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Today, Juneteenth is also called Emancipation Day, Freedom Day and Jubilee Day.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s a second part of General Order No. 3 that often gets overlooked. That part called for \u201can absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr5_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>It\u2019s this line, historian Sam Collins told The Hill, that made the Galveston emancipation different from others.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbsolute equality is not about everyone having equal results. Absolute equality is about creating a climate or environment or community where every human being has an equal opportunity to become the best version of themselves without hurdles or barriers hindering their growth or development,\u201d said Collins, who serves on the board of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Ruby Bridges Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>But the way in which this order was delivered was also an important part of the story. When the orders were presented in Galveston, the city also became occupied by Black troops, said Collins.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr6_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>According to the African American Civil War Museum, when African Americans were finally allowed to join the armed forces in July 1862 \u2014 nearly a year and a half after the start of the war \u2014 USCT accounted for more than 10 percent of the Union Army and 25 percent of the Union Navy.<\/p>\n<p>These numbers were staggering, considering African Americans made up only one percent of the Northern population.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile Granger is there and has been celebrated as the hero of the Juneteenth story, he was not alone,\u201d said Collins, co-founder of Galveston\u2019s Nia Cultural Center Juneteenth Legacy Project Headquarters. \u201cSome reports estimate as high as 75 percent [of soldiers] were United States Colored Troops.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr7_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>The contributions of these USCT are part of why many consider the need for Juneteenth\u2019s federal status so important: It would help educate a nation on a day that many were unaware of.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t until the murder of George Floyd in 2020 by Minneapolis police officers that attention around Juneteenth really began to grow, said Collins.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJuneteenth did not become more important in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, but it became more popular and with that popularity, the petition received increased signatures,\u201d he explained. \u201cThere were not many signatures on the petition before the murder of George Floyd, but the consciousness of the country was kind of shaken or awakened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/united-states-congress-made-juneteenth-a-national-holiday-in-2021\">petition<\/a>\u00a0was created by activist Opal Lee, who at the time was 94 years old. Lee was born and raised in Texas, and at the young age of 12, a white mob torched her family\u2019s home \u2014 on Juneteenth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is not lost on me that the summer of 2020 saw the largest support of Juneteenth to be a national holiday because of the death of George Floyd highlighted the systemic racism that still exists because of the residual effects of slavery,\u201d Lee wrote in her petition. \u201cWe can\u2019t let the swell of support just simply disappear until the summer rolls around again. We have make sure Congress follows through with their commitment to honor the lives of those who came before us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lee, known today as the grandmother of Juneteenth, had her goal achieved in 2021, when President Biden signed legislation marking June 19 as a federal holiday. She was present for the signing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy making Juneteenth a federal holiday, all Americans can feel the power of this day, and learn from our history, and celebrate progress, and grapple with the distance we\u2019ve come but the distance we have to <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">travel<\/a>,\u201d Biden said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGreat nations don\u2019t ignore their most painful moments,\u201d he added. \u201cThey don\u2019t ignore those moments of the past. They embrace them. Great nations don\u2019t walk away. We come to terms with the mistakes we made. And in remembering those moments, we begin to heal and grow stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Biden signed the legislation making Juneteenth a federal holiday, recognizing \u201cAmerica\u2019s original sin,\u201d he was also surrounded by prominent Black figures like Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and Reps. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Danny Davis (D-Ill.), Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas). These leaders, as well as others, had helped lead the push for the federal legislation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But they weren\u2019t the first ones to urge the nation to legally recognize the holiday.\u00a0The effort to make Juneteenth a federal holiday had been in the works since the 1800s.<\/p>\n<p>Back in 1879, Texas State Rep. Robert Evans (R) tried to pass legislation declaring Juneteenth a holiday. It would take 100 years before State Rep. Albert Ely Edwards (D) authored House Bill 1016 to make Juneteenth a paid holiday in Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Edwards, who died just one year before Biden\u2019s signing, became known as Mr. Juneteenth.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Lee worked with another name that often goes unheard: Ronald Myers.<\/p>\n<p>Myers worked for more than 25 years in the push to federally recognize Juneteenth, even establishing the Juneteenth Observance Foundation. He died in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve forgotten the contributions of these individuals that came before us that laid the groundwork and laid the foundation on which we stand today,\u201d Collins said. \u201cThis is history that is not taught in the classroom. It\u2019s not taught in our mainstream schools. So this is the history that we have to continue to share, to tell the truth of what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2023 Nexstar <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Media<\/a> Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more News articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/administration\/4053574-juneteenth-the-long-road-to-becoming-a-federal-holiday\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sue Johnson was born and raised in Galveston, Texas, a city on the Gulf Coast. She still remembers every year when she and her family would pack up the car and head to the beach for a day of celebration to commemorate America\u2019s second independence day: Juneteenth.\u00a0 So when the day became America\u2019s newest federal&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":579255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/Juneteenth_06192021_AP21171242233079.png?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[74202,134344,142516,134747,134353,90482,115,134354,134438],"class_list":["post-579254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-abraham-lincoln","tag-administration","tag-ap","tag-arts-culture","tag-court-battles","tag-house","tag-news","tag-nexstar-media-wire-news","tag-prevention-cures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}