Black Americans built this country. Here’s why Juneteenth should be a national holiday
Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, was first celebrated on June 19, 1866, as an annual event to commemorate the abolition of American slavery. It has, for 154 years, invited Americans to remember our 401-year commitment to freedom and equality.
The abolition of slavery occurred through a piece-meal and prolonged process extending over several years. Slavery was indeed abolished on Dec. 18, 1865. However, white Southerners refused to recognize Black freedom and citizenship far beyond that date.
The Emancipation Proclamation (Jan. 1, 1863) freed slaves in territories that were “in rebellion against the United States” during the American Civil War (April 12, 1861-May 9, 1865). The Thirteenth Amendment (Dec. 18, 1865) abolished slavery everywhere in the United States. The Fourteenth Amendment (July 9, 1868) extended citizenship to the formerly enslaved, granting them equal protection under the law.
Despite these Constitutional amendments, after the Civil War, many enslavers residing in remote places refused to inform tens of thousands of African Americans that they were free, extracting unrequited wealth from their minds and bodies for months and even years.
Consequently, Union soldiers occupying the South made public declarations, informing African Americans that they were, in fact, free. On June 19, 1865, Union Gen. Gordon Granger read General Order, Number 3 in Galveston, Texas, stating “all slaves are free. This involves absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves.” Juneteenth was first celebrated one year later in communities throughout Texas, and this commemoration spread to Black communities throughout the U.S.
Yet, as a country that takes great pride in its commitment to freedom, America refuses to recognize one of its greatest contributions to freedom — the liberation of some 4 million enslaved people. We intentionally forget Juneteenth, as it complicates and nuances who we imagine ourselves to be, as a country.
History is made and remade as each generation weighs its values against the circumstances of the past. We, as Americans, create historical memories about our inception, the origins of American freedom and who we are as a people
Our official history remains rather flat and unnuanced. It begins when pilgrims established Plymouth Colony in Nov. 1620. Fleeing religious persecution aboard the Mayflower, pilgrims began America’s experiment in democracy, which was nurtured during the colonial period and honed by the Founding Fathers.
Popular versions of American history willfully forget slavery; forgetting that the first enslaved Africans arrived in America in Aug. 1619, one year before Pilgrims began their social experiment.
Claims that America is “the land of the free” forget that America was a slave-owning country for 246 years, while slavery has only been abolished for 156 years. We forget that enslaved Africans provided the overwhelming majority of labor necessary to exploit the Americas. We forget that from 1500 to 1820 the Atlantic slave trade transplanted some 12 million enslaved Africans into the Americas, with roughly 800,000 imported into America.
During this same period, only 2.5 million Europeans arrived in the Americas. We assume that most of the wealth produced in colonial America was generated in northern colonies like New York, Massachusetts or Rhode Island. But we forget that, in South Carolina, enslaved Africans introduced African rice-growing traditions, making it the wealthiest of the 13 colonies and the wealthiest state in the U.S. up until the Civil War.
The consequences of historical racism are not confined to the past. Its legacy informs current circumstances. For 401 years, slavery, segregation and racism have conspired to disadvantage African Americans. Generations of wealth produced by Black minds and bodies went not to Black Americans but enslavers, constructing strong foundations of white privilege.
Following the Civil War, a century of segregation prevented African Americans from competing with white Americans for desirable jobs and housing while ensuring that their labor continued to benefit white Americans. Institutional racism continues to create barriers to education and employment. Today, African Americans suffer from inadequate health care and housing and are plagued by disproportionately high rates of police violence, health issues and incarceration.
African Americans have been committed to freedom for 401 years. We can continue to ignore Juneteenth or, in the midst of an unfaltering nationwide Black Lives Matters movement, we can use Juneteenth as a catalyst to help remember our national commitments to freedom and equality and implement policies advancing these ideals.
If we truly are a freedom-loving country, then a day commemorating the liberation of 4 million Americans should be one of our most important national holidays, not an event requiring essays, like this one, to explain its meaning.
This story was originally published June 19, 2020 at 5:00 AM.