On June 19, 1865 General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas with troops and issued General Order 3.
With General Granger’s arrival, all enslaved people were free and they all lived happily ever after. The End. Not.
If you look closely, it says 1865. June of 1865, in fact. Didn’t President Abraham Lincoln issue the Emancipation Proclamation that was effective as of January 1, 1863? Even accounting for geographical barriers, and a more dispersed population in agrarian times, why did it take a year and a half for the news to reach the slaves of Texas? Let’s consider what innovation and technology had made possible by that time. The Pony Express, rail travel, the telegraph were all in existence. The United States included both California and Oregon by 1863. As Native American nations were forced off of ancestral lands, word seemed to travel well enough to trigger waves of pioneers eager to lay their claims. And sadly, though these events could have formed the basis of the character “Timbuk” from the 1990s TV show “In Living Color,” they actually happened. Just how did this happen? Theories about why a quarter of a million Texas slaves had to endure the dehumanizing conditions of slavery far longer than necessary abound, but no one seems to have gone on record with an official explanation for the delay.
June 19, 1865 began to be known as Juneteenth, and was celebrated by former Texas slaves and their descendants. I find it remarkable that despite the fact that they probably had to work unimaginably hard and faced incredibly tough odds, they found it important to set aside this day to remember it. There are accounts of newly-established Texas Freedmen’s Bureaus and local churches organizing community voter education sessions, feasts, speeches, rodeos, and other competitions in the early years. As gatherings grew, celebrations were held in the outlying areas of town, and leaders of the black communities in some cities acquired dedicated sites through fundraising and land donations. The photo above shows attendees dressed up for an Emancipation Celebration in 1900.
My own family has handed down stories of how for many black people in Texas, Juneteenth was celebrated in the way many Americans celebrate July 4th. After all, June 19 was the day of their independence. As black people migrated from Texas to other parts of the U.S., they took this custom with them. In 1980 the Texas state legislature declared Juneteenth a state holiday and today many other states have recognized it on paper. Though celebrations began to decline in the middle of the 20th Century, it has experienced a resurgence in the recent past as more of us are reminded and/or learn about this important day. The June 21, 1995 issue of the Congressional Record recorded the beginning of what eventually became joint resolutions by both the House and the Senate to affirm and recognize the importance of this day. Today there are Juneteenth parades, Miss Juneteenth pageants, and Juneteenth festivals. Events take place not only in places we’d expect, such as Galveston, Houston, and Austin, but also in places like Milwaukee, Wisconsin, St. Augustine, Florida, Denver, Colorado and Portland, Oregon. These celebrations are open to all who believe in freedom and a better life.
Perhaps my affinity for this holiday is genetic. Or maybe I acquired it from all of the delicious Texas cooking I’ve ingested over the years–smoked brisket, Elgin sausages, fresh-picked pecans. I like to believe the reason the date resonates so strongly with me is that because it mattered to those who loved me, I have internalized the importance of this date. I freely admit that I while have to revisit the particulars of Juneteenth each year, that as a black woman, as a parent, and as a descendant of Texans, June 19, 1865 is a date that I will never forget.
I challenge you to think about lessons that Juneteenth teaches about the value of freedom and also about how we can all eliminate barriers to acquiring information. Even if you don’t celebrate your next Juneteenth with a cookout or by attending a parade, I hope you at least feel even the faintest nudge of recognition every June 19th to commemorate June 19, 1865 with honor in your own way.
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Resources:
Learn about the work of Juneteenth Worldwide Celebration here.
Wikipedia has a great roundup of reference material on Juneteenth here.
Emancipation Day Celebration Photo from Austin History Center, Austin Public Library
General Order 3 Photo from The Eiteljorg Museum.