Why We Should All Celebrate Juneteenth

Up until this past week, the last time a federal holiday was enacted into law was during the Reagan Administration when Martin Luther King, Jr. Day became a federal holiday. For the first time in nearly forty years, we have a new federal holiday: Juneteenth. This past week, both the House and the Senate passed bipartisan legislation enacting Juneteenth as a federal holiday. Since 62 percent of Americans know little to nothing about Juneteenth (Gallup), the first question I have to ask today is "what exactly is Juneteenth?" 

Aside from being a portmanteau of the words "June" and "nineteenth," Juneteenth is a holiday in the United States celebrating the Emancipation of African-American slaves. While the Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1862, the Union was unable to enforce the edict in the Confederate States. It was on June 19, 1865, that Union Army General Gordon Granger proclaimed freedom for African-American slaves in Texas. The reason why April 9, 1865, which is the date that Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, was not chosen is because it took a few weeks for the people of Texas to get the memo. June 19, 1865 represents the moment that all African-American slaves within the United States were effectively freed from slavery. 

With critical race theory, the 1619 Project, the protests subsequent to George Floyd's murder, and all the other politics surrounding race relations in recent U.S. history, I have to wonder about the origin of Juneteenth. Matt Rosendale (R-MT), who was one of the 14 Representatives that voted against the Juneteenth bill, argued that "it is an effort by the Left to create a day out of whole cloth to celebrate identity politics as part of its larger efforts to make Critical Race Theory the reigning ideology of our country." 

The main issue with Rosendale's argument is that Juneteenth is not new. As the Congressional Research Service brings up in its primer, Juneteenth celebrations date back to 1866. Texas was the first state to make it a state holiday in 1980. All but two states in the Union had it as a state-level holiday prior to Congress' enactment this week. All of this is to say that Juneteenth predates our modern-day concepts of political correctness, wokeness, or cancel culture.

This leads me to ponder Juneteenth in contrast to the Fourth of July. The Fourth of July commemorates the day in which the Declaration of Independence was signed: July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence established the ideals upon which this country was to be based, including that "all men are created equal" and that we are given the unalienable rights of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 

This brings up an interesting theme: ideals versus reality. Ideally, the Founders wanted a nation built upon freedom and equality under the law. The reality was much different. Thomas Jefferson, along with other signers of the Constitution, were slaveholders. We don't need anyone chiming in from modern-day times to point out the incongruence between theory and practice. Frederick Douglass did a fine job in his 1852 speech entitled "What, to the Slave, Is the Fourth of July?" Douglass called the celebration of the Fourth of July a sham, the boasted liberty an unholy license. For Douglass, the Fourth of July was "mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy." Given the historical context, Douglass was spot-on. Why have a holiday celebrating freedom and equality under the law when only some had said freedom? The Fourth of July represents the day that freedom was granted to some. Juneteenth represents the day that freedom was granted to all in the United States. 

This brings up another tension: progress versus the continued need for improvement. Getting rid of slavery was a major step in bringing us closer to equality. At the same time, it is not as if things were hunky-dory for African-Americans after June 19, 1865. The Civil War was followed by nearly a century of African-American citizens being de jure and de facto treated as second-class citizens, including Jim Crow laws, the racial terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan, and Plessy v. Ferguson. The Civil Rights movement, with the culmination being the Civil Rights Act of 1964, was another major milestone that represented a turning point in racial relations and those ideals enumerated in the Declaration of Independence. Even so, U.S. history since 1964 shows that progress still needs to be made. 

The culmination of these thoughts is why everyone should celebrate Juneteenth. The events leading up to Juneteenth most directly affected African-Americans. Historically, African-Americans have been the ones most likely to celebrate Juneteenth. While I acknowledge the impact the events surrounding Juneteenth have had on African-Americans, the themes surrounding Juneteenth are universal. 

Juneteenth is first and foremost a celebration of liberty over slavery, much like the Jewish celebration of Passover. Juneteenth reminds us that freedom is not just for some people. Freedom is for all people, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, or political beliefs. Any well-functioning democracy entails protecting the rights for its entire populace, and we should be mindful of that moving forward. 

Second, Juneteenth is an opportunity both to acknowledge African-American history as a part of the tapestry of U.S. history while bringing us closer as a society. Part of living in a pluralistic democracy is to be able to embrace others' differences, and ideally, celebrate our neighbors' histories. I view Juneteenth as a time to celebrate freedom generally and African-American history specifically, not to mention our commonality as human beings.  

Third, Juneteenth teaches us that we are to acknowledge our flaws while celebrating our achievements. The march towards progress or freedom isn't linear, consistent, or without bumps in the road. We as a country have made great strides, but we are also a work in progress. In addition to celebrating our progress, we should also look forward and ask ourselves where we would like to head. 

I hope you all have a Happy Juneteenth!