The Importance of this Day: June 19, 1865
“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. 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. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. wrote the following for the archived
PBS SoCal site:
When Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger issued the above order, he had
no idea that, in establishing the Union Army’s authority over the people of
Texas, he was also establishing the basis for a holiday, “Juneteenth” (“June”
plus “nineteenth”), today the most popular annual celebration of emancipation
from slavery in the United States. After all, by the time Granger assumed
command of the Department of Texas, the Confederate capital in Richmond had
fallen; the “Executive” to whom he referred, President Lincoln, was dead; and
the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery was well on its way to ratification.
But Granger wasn’t just a few months late. The Emancipation
Proclamation itself, ending slavery in the Confederacy (at least on paper), had
taken effect two-and-a-half years before, and in the interim, close to 200,000
black men had enlisted in the fight. So, formalities aside, wasn’t it all over,
literally, but the shouting?
It would be easy to think so in our world of immediate
communication, but as Granger and the 1,800 bluecoats under him soon found out,
news traveled slowly in Texas. Whatever Gen. Robert E. Lee had surrendered in
Virginia, the Army of the Trans-Mississippi had held out until late May, and
even with its formal surrender on June 2, a number of ex-rebels in the region
took to bushwhacking and plunder.
When Texas fell and Granger dispatched his now famous order
No. 3, it wasn’t exactly instant magic for most of the Lone Star State’s
250,000 slaves. On plantations, masters had to decide when and how to announce
the news — or wait for a government agent to arrive.
Even in Galveston city, the ex-Confederate mayor flouted the
Army by forcing the freed people back to work, as historian Elizabeth Hayes
Turner details in her comprehensive essay, “Juneteenth: Emancipation and
Memory,” in Lone Star Pasts: Memory and History in Texas.
Below this article is an incomplete list of references. There
is also a Wikipedia article to peruse. Quoting that reference, “For decades,
activists and congress members (led by many African Americans) proposed
legislation, advocated for, and built support for state and national
observances. During his campaign for president in June 2020, Joe Biden publicly
celebrated the holiday”.
What is also interesting – and telling is how, “…In January
2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order banning diversity,
equity, and inclusion programs in federal agencies that has been
interpreted by various agencies as eliminating in-agency observance planning
for a number of cultural remembrance events, including Juneteenth, Black
History Month, and several others. Nonetheless, for February 2025, Trump issued
the traditional presidential proclamation calling on officials to commemorate
Black History Month. In December 2025 however, free entry to national
parks on MLK Day and Juneteenth was ended; and replaced by free entry on Flag
Day, an unofficial holiday, which is also Donald Trump's birthday.” (Wikipedia).
Junteenth was celebrated as a holiday long before President
Biden signed the bill legislating it as a Federal Holiday in 2021. Here again,
according to Wikipedia, “One year later, on June 19, 1866, Freedmen in
Texas organized the first of what became annual commemorations of ‘Jubilee Day.’”
(Wikipedia).
“In some cities, Black people were barred from using public
parks because of state-sponsored segregation of facilities. Across
parts of Texas, freed people pooled their funds to purchase land to hold their
celebrations.” (Wikipedia).
There is so much more to say. The important thing to
understand is how this holiday can, and should be remembered, as a more
fundamental remembrance of American freedom through the lens of a group of people
who have been marginalized enough to be told they were officially freed on
January 1, 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation
Proclamation would go into effect, promising freedom to enslaved people in
all of the rebellious parts of Southern states of the Confederacy including
Texas, but not important enough to have the news of this emancipation delivered
to them until some three years later in 1865 as Union Troops had to be dispatched
came to Galveston, Texas to inform them of it!
The English colonies in North America declared their
independence from King George III on July 4, 1776. The majority of our nation
relied on enslaved labor to produce goods and services until 110 years later
June 19, 1865.
Let’s make sure everybody gets paid fairly for their
services and receives the respect they are due regardless of their heritage and
skin color.
My advice to the reader, no matter what race or cultural background
is to seek out articles, social media sites and celebrations of the holiday.
They are out there. Tell your friends.
Sorry it takes so long for me to write this stuff!
References.
Gates, Henry Jr. (n.d.) What Is Junteenth? Retrieved June
18, 2026 from https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/what-is-juneteenth/
Junteenth. Retrieved June 18, 2026 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth#cite_note-gates-11
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