(Editor’s note: This is a commentary I posted last Juneteenth.)
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, freeing the slaves. It took effect January 1, 1863, however, word spread slowly through the South as the Union army advanced during the Civil War. The news didn’t get to Texas until two-and-a-half years later.
On this day in 1865, Union Army General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, where he announced the 250,000 or more slaves of that state were free. Granger read General Order number 3 aloud:
“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free,” Granger said. “This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.
Ever since, the Black community has marked the anniversary as their Independence Day. Texas was the first state to recognize the day, beginning the following year. More states joined in over the years, but it was not until 2021 when Congress passed, and the President signed, a bill to recognize June 19th as a federal holiday–Juneteenth.
This holiday is not exclusive to one race; it is an opportunity for all Americans to acknowledge the nation’s great stain of slavery, but also celebrate our ongoing quest to fulfill what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called our “promissory note” of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all people.
Representative Shelia Jackson Lee (D, Texas), who pushed for federal recognition of the day, said, “I think Juneteenth tells a wonderful story. It’s a story of freedom. It happened two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, but it still set a pathway to freedom. Who are we as a nation if you are frightened about freedom and liberation and joy?”
It is self-evident that emancipation was not an end point, but a beginning of what would be a long, difficult and continuous struggle by Black Americans to access the full benefit of the guarantees in our Constitution. Too often, our cursory study of racial strife in this country jumps from emancipation to the Civil Rights movement, ignoring a century of Jim Crow.
But the great strength of our country is that it is filled with good people who strive to do better. Yes, there are fits and starts, setbacks and the deleterious effects of tribal politics, but on a day such as this, it is appropriate to acknowledge how far we have come.
Former Representative Barbara Jordan said, “What people want is simple. They want an America as good as its promise.”
General Granger delivered word of the promise to the slaves of Texas 159 years ago today, and that is worth celebrating.