Written by Carly Bengry, Hearing Coordinator
For the longest time, I knew June 19th as simply my birthday. It was not until I turned 23 that I learned what “Juneteenth” even was. I knew Pride month occurred during June. I knew a lot of people celebrated Father’s Day (coincidentally, the first Father’s Day was celebrated on June 19th in 1910). I knew that the summer solstice and the end of Gemini season occurred on June 21st. I even knew that a lot of weddings historically happened in June because it was the first time of the year where people could bathe, and flowers were in full bloom to make a nice celebration. I never knew, or learned, about Juneteenth.
I am a historian by nature – and by nature, I mean through a Bachelor of Science in history and education. So, here’s a look at what my educational curriculum did not teach me about a historic day in United States history.
A Quick American Civil War History Lesson
Before I get into the nitty-gritty of June 19, 1865, you need to have a bit of context so here’s the quickest timeline I can give you to let you know where in history we are:
- November 6, 1860 – Republican Party candidate for antislavery, Abraham Lincoln, was elected the 16th President of the United States.
- April 1861 – 11 Southern states had seceded from the Union.
A Not-So-Fun Fun Fact! Florida was the third state to secede from the Union on January 10, 1881.
- Lots of famous battles happened. You’ve probably at least heard of one.
- January 1, 1863 – President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, stating that all individuals held as slaves were freed.
- More famous battles happened like Gettysburg and the Atlanta Campaign.
- April 9, 1865 – Confederate General Lee surrendered to Union General Grant.
- April 14, 1865 – President Lincoln was assassinated (and a country mourned).
You’re probably wondering, “what does any of this have to do with a date that comes two months after your timeline?” GREAT QUESTION!
June 19, 1865 and Its Legacy
While President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on New Year’s Day 1863, mass communication was not readily available as it is today. (But seriously can you imagine Abe tweeting? He probably uses the top hat emoji at the end of all his tweets.) It took time to get proclamations, laws, and any kind of news to places around the country, AND there was a war going on ABOUT the very same people that the proclamation frees.
So, now we’re at June 19, 1865. Union Army General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas tasked with two jobs: bring Texas under some form of normalcy post-war and proclaim to the masses about General Order No. 3 – slavery had ended in the United States, and now, it was officially over in Texas.
But General Order No. 3 did not simply bring the end of slavery. It brought the reemergence of similar words used at the beginning of the United States when the Declaration of Independence declared freedom from Great Britain:
“This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and freedoms of property between former masters and slaves.”
Come 1866, celebrations stated. That first year, the celebration was called “Jubilee Day,” and other celebrations were used as a way to help newly freed slaves receive instructions on voting. The next year led to a celebration under the Freemen’s Bureau – mainly because state-sponsored segregation was coming out in full-force in public facilities. By the 1890s, Jubilee Day became known as “Juneteenth.”
However, the world was not kind at the turn of the twentieth century. Globally, there was economic decline, the War to End All Wars, and the Great Depression. New constitutions for states helped to disenfranchise black people, and Jim Crow laws were passed to create second-class citizenry. Gladys L. Knight wrote that celebrations also may have declined as some were becoming ashamed of their ancestral past.
A bright spot made its way through in 1938 when Texas governor James V. Allred issued a proclamation making “Emancipation Day” a date for observance, and:
“do urge all members of the Negro race in Texas to observe the day in a manner appropriate to its importance to them.”
Over 40 years later in 1980, Juneteenth became an official state holiday in Texas through the efforts of African-American state legislator Al Edwards. Many states have since started to have conversations about making Juneteenth a state holiday and, potentially, a national holiday.
Other Historically Important June 19th Events
As a historian, I would be remiss to not mention other historically important events that occurred on June 19th more than likely as a result of June 19, 1865 (I say ‘more than likely’ because Newton’s Third Law may have brought us to these events through other avenues, but we will never know because history is literally in the past).
June 19, 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed in the United States Senate, 73 – 27. The previous June, President Kennedy urged the nation to guarantee equal treatment of all United States citizens regardless of race. President Kennedy continued to propose to Congress that the legislation should address voting rights, segregation, and nondiscrimination among other topics.
November 22, 1963 changed the course of history with the president’s assassination (maybe it says something that both presidents who worked for equality for all were killed, but I’m not here to talk about presidential conspiracy theories). Lyndon B. Johnson took office and campaigned for the late President’s ideas. The House of Representatives stalled on passing the bill, and the senate all filibustered, but on June 19, 1964, both houses of Congress had passed the bill. President Johnson signed the historic legislation into law July 2, 1964.
June 19, 1968
The Poor People’s March, also known as the Solidarity March, occurred on June 19, 1968, a few short months after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., arguably the face of the Civil Rights Movement. Led by Ralph Abernathy, longtime friend of the late Dr. King and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an estimated 50,000 demonstrators marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial. Speakers such as the champion of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and Dr. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, spoke to those in attendance, urging Congress for an Economic Bill of Rights.
Coda
While researching a bit more for this article, I read Annette Gordon-Reed’s book On Juneteenth. Gordon-Reed used “coda” as their term for conclusion in their book. I wanted to end this with some of Gordon-Reed’s (pg. 12) words as they eloquently explain what I talked about today:
“Such a thing should be celebrated far and wide.”
References
Congressional Research Service. (2020, June 3). Juneteenth: Fact sheet.
Davis, K.C. (2020, June 12). Juneteenth: Our other independence day. Smithsonian Magazine.
Davis, M. (2020, June 19). National archives safeguards original ‘Juneteenth’ general order. National Archives News.
Gordon-Reed, A. (2021). On Juneteenth. Liveright Publishing Corporation.
National Archives Foundation (2021). Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Tikkanen, A. (2021). Poor people’s campaign. Britannica.
Waxman, O.B. (2020, June 17).
Activists are pushing to make Juneteenth a national holiday: Here’s the history behind their fight
. Time.
