Since today is Juneteenth, I thought I would recognize the holiday by discussing ten things you may not know about Juneteenth!
Since it’s a relatively new holiday for many of you, here are ten things you may not know about Juneteenth:
- It’s celebrated on June 19th because on the morning of June 19, 1865, Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived on the island of Galveston to take command of the more than 2,000 federal troops recently landed in the department of Texas to enforce the emancipation of its enslaved population.
- One year later, on June 19, 1866, freed slaves in Texas organized the first of what became annual commemorations of “Jubilee Day.”
- In some cities, Black people were barred from using public parks because of state-sponsored segregation of facilities. Across parts of Texas, freed people pooled their funds to purchase land to hold their celebrations.
- In 1872, Black leaders in Texas raised $1,000 for the purchase of 10 acres (4 ha) of land, today known as Houston’s Emancipation Park, to celebrate Juneteenth.
- The Black community began using the word Juneteenth for “Jubilee Day” early in the 1890s.
- It has also been known as “Emancipation Day”, “Freedom Day” and “Black Independence Day”.
- The holiday is considered the “longest-running African-American holiday” and has been called “America’s second Independence Day.”
- In 1979, Democratic State Representative Al Edwards of Houston successfully sponsored legislation to make Juneteenth a paid Texas state holiday, making Texas the first state to establish Juneteenth as a state holiday. Houston has been holding large-scale celebrations since 1974.
- Juneteenth is also celebrated by the Mascogos, descendants of Black Seminoles who escaped from slavery in 1852 and settled in Coahuila, Mexico.
- The day was recognized as a federal holiday in 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law. Juneteenth became the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was adopted in 1983.
There you have it – ten things you may not know about Juneteenth! Now you know!
So, what do you think? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.
Facts and Image Courtesy of Wikipedia, which reflects an Emancipation Day celebration in Richmond, Virginia in 1905. Fact number 11! 🙂
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