Juneteenth marks the jubilant day in 1865 when many of the more than 250,000 people who were enslaved in Texas finally learned they were legally free.
This deliberately delayed news was delivered by federal troops arriving in Galveston after the end of the Civil War, reaching them more than 2½ years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, that freed all people who were enslaved in the Confederate states.
Many Black families have celebrated Juneteenth for generations, a tradition that began in Texas almost immediately following the first “Jubilee Day.”
Honoring Watch Night, or Freedom’s Eve, on Dec. 31 is a separate tradition in many Black churches and communities which commemorates that night in 1862 when enslaved people who were aware of President Lincoln’s intentions gathered and waited for the official news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect.
But that declaration of freedom was withheld from enslaved people in many places still under Confederate rule for as long as possible. Texas was the last state where the truth was finally revealed, and so we honor Juneteenth because, in my beloved friend and role model Fannie Lou Hamer’s eternal words, ‘nobody’s free until everybody’s free.’
Many Black families have celebrated Juneteenth for generations, a tradition that began in Texas almost immediately following the first “Jubilee Day.”
In 1968, during the Poor People’s Campaign, tens of thousands of people came to Washington, D.C., for a rally honoring June 19 as “Solidarity Day.” Just weeks after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy said that rally brought together all of us determined to “fulfill [Dr. King’s] prophecy of a united, decent America, dedicated anew to the concept of justice for all.”
The drive to make Juneteenth a national holiday, led by tireless advocates like Mrs. Opal Lee, was another long-awaited milestone.
One hundred sixty years after the first Juneteenth, this year’s celebrations have continued throughout the week following June 19 as Americans grapple with what our nation’s promised freedom really means.
From protests defending immigrants’ rights to those opposing dictators and kings, the struggle to define equality and liberty and justice for all is churning in cities, suburbs and small towns across the country.
Where will it go next?
The Juneteenth celebrations are not just historic markers; they reflect both the resilience and celebratory joy of generations of African Americans and the ongoing need to ensure that rights declared become rights realized.
The observances were an opportunity to focus on Juneteenth’s full meaning. In the face of sweeping attempts to sanitize storytelling about our nation’s past, commemorating Juneteenth honored the full truth of American history. It recognized that the fight for true freedom is still urgent in the face of new efforts to limit rights for some Americans instead of protecting them for everyone.
Will we keep struggling to close the gap between the promise and the practice of justice, and to see that freedom reaches everyone, everywhere, without delay?
Once again Juneteenth reminds us: Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.
Marian Wright Edelman is founder and president emerita of the Children’s Defense Fund.