https://www.scribd.com/doc/96672515/Juneteenth-Black-Legacy-Association-of-Cedar-Rapids
I first heard of Juneteenth in high school in the mid 1990s. At the time I don’t think a lot of other white people had ever heard of it. For further context, even Martin Luther King Jr. Day (MLK Day) in high school was only an optional day off and for black students only.
The above featured bulletin or flyer is one I received in 2012 and even back then Juneteenth wasn’t well known among whites.
On January 1, 1863 Abraham Lincoln ended slavery in all states but within Confederate states this could only be enforced by Union troops. Many slaves in the deep south were not made aware of their freedom and those who may have learned of their freedom were held against their will and made to remain as slaves. It wasn’t until 2 and a half years after Lincoln’s presidential proclamation and executive order ending slavery that it was enforced in Texas by Union Major General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865. Juneteenth is a portmanteau of June and nineteenth, referring to June 19, 1865.
US constitutional abolition of slavery was achieved by the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution in December 1865.
I’ve never supported Joe Biden but I think he did the right think when in 2021 he signed a bill making Juneteenth a US federal holiday. Btw, there’s only 12 US federal holidays.
Apparently Juneteenth is also celebrated in at least one part of Mexico. The Mascogos (also known as negros mascagos) are an Afro-descendant group in Coahuila, Mexico, and are descendants of Black Seminoles escaping the threat of slavery in the United States.
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