What is Juneteenth?
On June 19th the Federal Government celebrates the Juneteenth holiday. Just what is Juneteenth?
Unlike our current world, news in the 1860’s traveled slowly across the country and in Texas. Although the Civil War effectively ended with the surrender of General Robert E. Lee on April 9, 1865, the true end of the war did not occur until August 20, 1866. During the conflict, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, to become effective on January 1, 1863. The proclamation freed enslaved men, women and children living in Confederate states. It did not apply to enslaved persons in Union states. Enslaved people in Maryland were freed by a new Maryland constitution in 1864.
In 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Texas, the extreme edge of the former Confederate states, he discovered that the news of Lincoln’s proclamation had not reached Galveston and other parts of Texas. Given that, Granger issued the following General Order No. 3:
“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 personal 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.” -General Orders, Number 3; Headquarters District of Texas, Galveston, June 19, 1865
Despite the order, freedom from enslavement was not immediate. On plantations, it was up to the “master” to decide when and how to deliver this news. Many purposely waited until after the harvest to announce the order to their enslaved people. If government agents arrived, the news was announced at that time. In many instances, the order was ignored, and enslavement continued until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment on December 6, 1865. It was not until then that all states, including those which had remained in the Union, effectively abolished enslavement and emancipation had the force of law.
It was Major General Granger’s General Order that established the basis for the holiday that came to be called Juneteenth (June plus nineteenth). Today, this is the most popular annual celebration of emancipation in the United States. In 1979, Texas became the first state to make Juneteenth an official holiday. Since then, 41 states, including Maryland and the District of Columbia, have recognized Juneteenth as either a holiday or observance day. In 2021 the US Congress designated June 19th as one of 11 federal holidays.
When June 19 falls on a weekend, the holiday is observed either on the Friday before or the Monday after.