Juneteenth is my first lesson in resistance even though it wasn’t framed in that way. But if you understand the history of this Black Texan celebration, you’ll understand why it has such a significant meaning. It wasn’t just the fact that we found out 2.5 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was read by then President Lincoln or the fact that General Granger landed on Galveston Island to read General Order Number 3. It was in fact that since that day June 19, 1865, the landowners and slave masters as well as their descendants have tried to quell, disrupt and destroy a celebration of our ancestors learning they were free from bondage. Or so they thought.
Growing up we would make homemade ice cream. I love ice cream so this is one of my most fondest memories. Mrs. Ruthie would bring her ice cream maker to church and all of us kids wanted to churn it. We always had vanilla. Its texture is that of a blizzard that wasn’t all the way solid. Y’all know Dairy Queen been struggling with keeping blizzards solid as to why they no longer flip them upside down. If you grew up in Texas, you’ll understand what I’m talking about. After we finished our ice cream, we would run through the red clay dirt of East Texas in the church parking lot until it was time to go home. This was after we had some type of program.
See Juneteenth is more than a BBQ, a day off from work or a reason to promote your club. Juneteenth is a day for freed Black people to gather together to celebrate us. Being who we are. Using that day to search for missing family members. To share with younger generations about our families. To have one day out of the year that was dedicated to something other than white supremacy.
To this day my mom’s generation still has many of their Juneteenth t-shirts. I wholeheartedly believe Juneteenth started that whole Black people must wear matching t-shirts for all occasions. I also believe that Juneteenth was the introduction of what Black family reunions have grown into over the decades. Again, wearing those matching t-shirts.
While we can’t celebrate in the physical this year with BBQs, parades, programs, church events or hayrides, that doesn’t mean we don’t acknowledge it. With more and more people learning this day exist, turning it into paid company holidays or more Black people saying they will celebrate, as a native Black Texan I want to share a little about how this day came to be. Major General Gordon Granger landed on Galveston Island on June 18, 1865 after General Robert Lee was defeated and surrendered in April 1865. That was the last confederate holdout and when he surrendered, the Union officially could implement all parts of President Lincoln’s plan for moving this country out of a slave-based economy.
“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 rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer. 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.”
On June 19, 1865, General Granger read General Order Number 3.
If you read it, it really just says we can’t work for free but very little rights are actually stated in this order. Now some slave masters put off reading this order until after their harvest. See, they didn’t comply nor was there a consequence of not complying. Sounds a lot like 2020. Some free Black people began to move to the cities to look for work. Others stayed where they were. Some families even got their own land. Not for free but they worked to buy it. To this day, my father’s side of the family still owns our family land in East Texas. For the record, my mom’s father’s family still owns their land in Virginia as well. I’m one of the few Black Millennials who has family property on both sides dating back to the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Beginning in 1866, Black Texans began to celebrate Juneteenth (June 19) as the day they learned of their freedom. Freedman’s communities were created across the country. This was their safe place to live. Their own communities away from prying eyes. If you’re in Houston, that would be located in Fourth Ward. With little property of their own the celebrations started to spill over and that didn’t sit well with y’all know who. The celebrations were stopped, companies wouldn’t let people off work, it became increasingly difficult to celebrate our day of freedom. So a few leaders in several cities began to purchase land that would be ours so at least there was a place to celebrate. There’s Emancipation Park in Houston which Rev. John Henry “Jack” Yates was able to raise $1,000 to purchase the land, Booker T. Washington Park in Mexia, TX as well as Emancipation Park in Austin, TX.
Now that we had places we owned to celebrate, the celebration grew stronger. That was until Jim Crow laws came into play and the Great Depression shut down the country. The Civil Rights movement resurged the pride of what Juneteenth meant. It began to grow again. With more people moving away from Texas, they took this celebration with them to other states.
In 1979, Al Edwards a Black state Legislature in Texas from Houston created a bill. On January 1, 1980 Texas passed the bill and Juneteenth was officially recognized as a state holiday. Now how many people knew that? And why hasn’t Texas actually made it a paid holiday 40 years later?
Today, Juneteenth has gone national. While I’m in the pool of Black Texans who have mixed feelings about it, I do get everyone wants a celebration of our freedom. There’s always Emancipation Proclamation Day but that falls on New Year’s Day, so I don’t see that happening. I’m getting on board with more and more non-Texans celebrating this day. I just want y’all to understand the significance of this day. The sacrifice that our ancestors were still chained and in bondage when y’alls were free. The struggle and fight for us to make this a day that wouldn’t be forgotten so you get your paid day off. Juneteenth is a day we are to pray, reflect and remember who came before us. And make sure those who come after know why this day means so much. I want to end with this quote from Al Edwards from a 2007 Yahoo interview.
“This is similar to what God instructed Joshua to do as he led the Israelites into the Promised Land. A national celebration of Juneteenth, state by state, serves a similar purpose for us. Every year we must remind successive generations that this event triggered a series of events that one by one defines the challenges and responsibilities of successive generations. That’s why we need this holiday.”
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