Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, or Juneteenth Independence Day
- OPINION from SCOTT CORLEY
In the midst of the U.S. Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed an Executive Order on January 1st, 1863, freeing all enslaved people in the states that had left the Union to form the Confederacy and were in an active state of rebellion against the country. Texas, which was the most western of the Confederate’s regions, like all other southern states, refused to spread news of the Emancipation Proclamation, let alone enforce it. Even when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Grant at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, it was not until June 19, 1865 that a Union Army, led by General Gordon Granger, entered Galveston, Texas with the formal announcement that the war was over, thus, providing the news of Emancipation which gave, “absolute equality” to more than 250,000 enslaved people in Texas. It is important to note here that slavery’s legal abolition was not formally sanctioned in the nation until passage and ratification of the 13th Amendment on January 31, 1865.
Despite the hard earned and victoriously momentous nature of the occasion, it is still something of a sad and shameful commentary on American democracy, society, and culture that it took more than another full century, soaked in Black people’s blood, sweat, and tears, to only begin to realize the true Emancipation of formally enslaved Black people and their descendants.
Upon receiving the news of their freedom, African Americans in Texas, and then throughout the south, began the tradition of celebrating their official liberty in Texas with a day marked by prayer and religious services; speeches and educational events; food and dance; and lectures and cultural exhibits. Many formerly enslaved people interpreted the moment of Emancipation as evidence of God’s Divine Deliverance, while others took the news as the U.S. finally embracing its self-proclaimed values of freedom, democracy, and opportunity.
In 1980, Texas formally declared Juneteenth to be a state holiday, which was then followed by other states, cities, and even private companies. The day is also recognized globally, outside of the United States, especially in those countries that are acutely aware of the cultural achievements of African-descended people and their incalculable contributions to the development of the United States as well as the modern world.
Despite the hard earned and victoriously momentous nature of the occasion, it is still something of a sad and shameful commentary on American democracy, society, and culture that it took more than another full century, soaked in Black people’s blood, sweat, and tears, to only begin to realize the true Emancipation of formally enslaved Black people and their descendants. Failure of the first Reconstruction, formally sealed with the Compromise of 1877, which resulted in the proliferation of Jim Crow laws; legal segregation and discrimination; racial harassment and race-based terrorism perpetuated by the KKK and other white supremist-terrorist groups (who’s activities were met with informal compliance by U.S. government); plus structural violence, all made the celebratory nature and importance of Juneteenth close to null and void. Such historical developments deferred the dream of the holiday for over 100 years.
And in a related fashion, recent developments highlight the perpetuation of systemic inequalities highly correlated to race. Police killings of too many African Americans, disparities in access to quality healthcare (recently given new attention to because of clear disparities in pandemic-related infection and fatality rates between White and Black Americans), in addition to increases in hate activities motivated by race, has all raised legitimately important questions about the real nature of Black Emancipation and just how much African Americans enjoy equal opportunity and the benefits of actual citizenship.
In the same way that Black people during the late 1800s held uncertainty and anxiety knowing that their technical freedom from slavery did not mean, or automatically translate into equality, Black people have been forced to embrace similar contradictions and grapple with, on an everyday basis, similar ambiguities, which in fact, reveal a national problem. The United States faces ethical, moral, and democratic challenges resulting from the continued, extended failure to face up to one of its greatest failures.
Among that which further supports the validity of this question are present realities connected to the loss of momentum in protecting and furthering the accomplishments of the 1964-1965 Voting and Civil Rights Acts of the 2nd Reconstruction. In recent years, states and localities have successfully rolled-back hard-earned Civil Rights victories that protected voting rights for African Americans as well as other marginalized groups.
There are also current efforts to legally restrict teaching the realities of slavery and the embeddedness of racism in U.S. history and contemporary society. Right now, there are over 15 states attempting to restrict teachers from providing instruction about racism, sexism and other types of oppression in the U.S. Complimenting these efforts are bans to prohibit utilization of Critical Race Theory and The 1619 Project’s collection of essays and curriculum.
Just as media outlets, school systems, textbook companies, and individual campuses continue to deliberately present slavery and racism in the U.S. as strange, out of the ordinary aberrations of U.S. history, so as to project an image of innocence and dedicated obligation to democracy, increasing numbers of Americans are simultaneously being intentionally made to delegitimize the notion of systemic racism’s influence, and by extension, movements to end it. This, again, diminishes why we should properly celebrate Juneteenth in especially terms of its significance.
Although it would be nice to recognize Juneteenth as an opportunity to embrace a nationwide, multicultural celebration of freedom and an opportunity to organize dialogues aimed to promote, in the words of Lincoln a, “nation, under God, [that] shall have a new birth of freedom and government of the people, by the people, for the people.” (Gettysburg Address), increasing calls to ignore the significance of racial injustice and see it as one of the most important and legitimate counter-narratives to U.S. liberty, again, eclipses the meaning of the oldest African American holiday.
After African Americans acquired their technical freedom from bondage, attained their legal citizenship, and gained their formalized political voice in the forms of the 13th through 15th Amendments and then further benefited from legislative gains accomplished during the 2nd Reconstruction of the mid-20th century Civil Rights Movement, Black people are still made to negotiate and re-negotiate a host of paradoxes, barriers, and disappointments prohibiting their ability to equally and equitably realize the American Dream. Race-based hatred, harassment, state-sanctioned violence, and systemic marginalization continue to throw up barriers to true Emancipation and independence.
And this should be the primary “bone of contention” for all patriotic, conscious, and engaged Americans to have to square with regarding the irony of Juneteenth’s increasing popularity, especially now that Juneteenth is an official federal holiday. If more and more Americans hear about, embrace, or simply tolerate, the celebration of Juneteenth, they should also be encouraged to face the uncomfortable aspects of the holiday’s meaning and reckon with incompatibilities with respect to how and why current incarceration rates; education and employment gaps; and healthcare trends – all highly correlated to race – spectacularly fail to reflect the spirit of the holiday.
Although Juneteenth should rightly be celebrated as the signal of racial and democratic progress that it obviously is, how can such a celebration be properly appreciated without a complete understanding of, and confrontation with, what held back (and continues to hold back) that progress?
Americans seem to be comfortable with celebrating the surface of Juneteenth, however should be equally uncomfortable from gaining a deeper understanding of the day. As Robin DiAngelo points out, we can move forward by embracing that discomfort, which is, indeed, necessary for the promise advancing of a multiracial, and just democracy.
Scott Corley is a Full Professor in the History, Philosophy, and Social Science Department at SUNY Broome Community College, where he primarily teaches Domestic Social Problems, U.S. History II, Race and Ethnicity, and African American History. He is also a part-time graduate student in Binghamton University’s (SUNY) Community Research and Action PhD. program offered through Binghamton’s College of Community and Public Affairs. Scott received his MA from SUNY Albany in African and African American Studies and his BA in History (with Honors) from Union College.corleysa@sunybroome.edu