Juneteenth: Freedom Day gaining momentum
In 1860 just two years before the Emancipation Proclamation, Virginia’s 550,000 slaves represented a third of its entire population, according to the Virginia Museum of History & Culture. So it’s a beautiful irony that Virginia is about to become the latest state to make Juneteenth an official holiday, complete with paid time off for state employees.
Virginia’s not the only one to make a bigger deal of neglected history this year. On Monday Idaho’s Gov. Brad Little issued a proclamation recognizing “Juneteenth National Freedom Day.”
Juneteenth, also called Emancipation Day and Freedom Day, marks the end of a nearly three-year journey carrying President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation across the nation, finally ending American slavery. While the proclamation took effect on Sept. 22, 1862, it didn’t reach its final destination of Texas until June 19, 1865.
June 19. Juneteenth.
All slave-owning states had already heard about it; news had spread far and wide. But it took a general and 2,000 troops to drive home the message: No more. No more kidnapping, abuse or torture of human beings was to be tolerated.
July 4 may be the nation’s birthday, but June 19 was when the most basic freedom — the freedom to be one’s own master — became possible for every American.
Texas was the first state to declare Juneteenth an official holiday in 1980, and one of only four before the year 2000. In my 22 years in Texas, Juneteenth was a big deal, with massive public picnics and barbecues, outdoor concerts and daylong celebrations — and I mean multiracial, because freedom shouldn’t have a color.
So when I moved north in the 1990s it felt odd not to commemorate such a major event in U.S. history. Perhaps that’s shifting. Juneteenth celebrations are catching on around the nation, even before this spring’s BLM protests increased the momentum.
The symbolism reaches beyond U.S. borders. Sadly, slavery was and remains a worldwide issue. Perhaps that’s why other nations — including Taiwan, Japan, Israel, Ghana, Guam, France, Barbados, and Germany, to name a few — recognize or celebrate our Juneteenth.
Two more countries share the date’s association with freedom. On June 19, 1306, during the First War of Scottish Independence Robert the Bruce’s army fought the invading English, an ongoing battle started by his predecessor, William Wallace, and portrayed in the Mel Gibson film “Braveheart.”
In the Middle East lies another Juneteenth connection to English colonialism. On June 19, 1961, Kuwait declared independence from the United Kingdom.
Some things are simply universal, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, race, religion, culture, or economic status. The drive to be the master of one’s own destiny, to be truly free, is inexorable. It is the frustration of that desire — the attempts by some to exert control over others — that is at the heart of the world’s depressingly unnecessary troubles.
“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.” — Abraham Lincoln
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Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Contact her at Sholeh@cdapress.com.