Juneteenth

For organizer Mae Hazleton, this wasn't the first celebration of its kind, but it felt like it. "Juneteenth was made a federal holiday in 2021, but this, for me ...

"Juneteenth is about freedom, and there are still freedoms that the African-American community doesn't enjoy — being healthy, wealthy and wise," said Hazleton. "We want you to learn about the community and what we are offering, but we also want you to enjoy the food. It's a community effort to get these kids where they need to be," Rivera said. People crowded a booth to register to vote then hugged each other before sitting down to eat together as a new community. "I have a variety of resources, everything from nutrition and exercising to preventing chronic diseases. "Juneteenth was made a federal holiday in 2021, but this, for me, is the inaugural event. It was co-sponsored by All About the Ballots, GoMountDora, Community Development Corporation of Mount Dora, Black Voters Matter, Black Women’s Roundtable and Peachy Enterprises.

Author and journalist Mark Whitaker visits Texas, where his great-grandfather became a free man in 1865, and meets with relatives for whom Juneteenth ...

"You'd get to eat," laughed Bernice. "And then we would eat and go back to the field!" That's truly an Independence Day. It's not only for just Black people, but it's for America." My great-grandfather stayed close to the land, but he was able to get some education. And John is the president and CEO of the Cen-Tex African American Chamber of Commerce, which boosts Black businesses. Because he was blind and he couldn't see us." He became a fine statistician and historian. They waited, and for years." "They remained sharecropping," Angela said. John said, "You had slaves that were freed, but really had nowhere to go. The tombstones are in a tiny, well-kept, all-Black cemetery, down a dirt road just outside the town of Jewett, about halfway between Houston and Dallas. "He was blind. It was 157 years ago today, on June 19, 1865, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger went from the piers to downtown Galveston reading General Order Number 3, which said that "all slaves are free.

On Sunday, churchgoers will celebrate Juneteenth during their worship services. Members of the clergy reflect on the role of the church and the holiday ...

"Our faith requires us to be active in restoring and repairing the wrongs that stem from America's original sin of slavery." In Galveston, Texas — the birthplace of Juneteenth — congregants at Reedy Chapel A.M.E. Church will begin their service at 11 a.m. and end the day with a freedom march. We call that End Slavery for Good, ensuring that no one be subject to slavery, even as punishment for a crime," says the Rev. Canon Anna E. Rossi. Fields says that "they were believing God to liberate them" – not Abraham Lincoln nor their slave masters. Juneteenth is also called Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day and Freedom Day. It's the most recent new federal holiday, since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was introduced in 1983. Generations later, this hymn is still sung to remember how it felt to be a slave and to continue to seek equality and justice.

With live performances, vendors, food and dance, community members gathered in celebration for Juneteenth in downtown Boise.

The Patriot Front members were arrested on June 11 for conspiracy to riot after a 911 caller alerted the police to a group of men crowding inside in a U-Haul truck. It is where I love and where I want to be,” Owens said. “If you pull out your camera, and in every one of your group photos everybody looks only like you, then you’ve probably got some work to do. “Juneteenth is a space of so much Black joy for people across the diaspora. Last year, the state and federal government signed a law designating June 19 — known as Juneteenth — as an official holiday. Holiday celebrations took place across the state with events happening in Twin Falls and Lapwai. Students at Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg will also celebrate the date on Monday.

The new federal holiday marks the day residents of Galveston received General Order No. 3, which freed slaves in Texas.

This year, you can spend Juneteenth learning about Black history, going to an event, or spending time with your loved ones at your own home. Learning more about the holiday as well as Black culture and history is a perfect way to observe it To start, you can read some books about Juneteenth or Black history. If you do decide to plan a cookout, make sure you incorporate red food or drinks, which represent the sacrifice made by slaves from the past.

When Juneteenth became a federal holiday last year, South Carolina organizer Jamal Bradley was excited for it to finally get the recognition it deserves.

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The commemoration included events across the Des Moines metro, drawing thousands of attendees to celebrate and recognize the place of Juneteenth plays.

"Today we're putting on Pride and Soul, which to me is an intersection of my identity. It solidifies the start of the American Dream for Black people," said Perry Thompson, a comedian who performed at the event. Wells served as a facilitator helping community members add their addition to the mural. I'm bringing my kids now," said Iowan Johnneisha Long while attending a Juneteenth event in Des Moines. "To me it's something important to celebrate and to know our history and where we came from." We will lose the diversity — the meaning of it." "It feels like I finally gone big time as an artist. "When did I first hear about Juneteenth? About 15 years ago... the city of Cedar Rapids was going to hold a Juneteenth Celebration and I was like 'Well okay, this is a thing that I knew about but I didn't know that anybody celebrated,'" said Kevin Burt, a American blues-rock musician based in Iowa. Musicians and comedians performed and there was a debut of a documentary from Iowa PBS called "Juneteenth: The Movement." "I would say it's something that should never be forgotten for not only the African American community, but all of our communities and a part of our history that should be talked about," McDonald said. "In my opinion, Juneteenth is all about freedom and reclamation of bodily and emotional autonomy," said Jalesha Johnson, an organizer from Des Moines Black Liberation Movement, while attending the “Pride & Soul” event in Des Moines. Iowans were celebrating Juneteenth across the state in the days leading up to the federal holiday — taking stock of the importance of Black history and freedom.

A year after Juneteenth became a federal holiday, Americans across the country gathered this weekend at events filled with music, food and fireworks.

“As each of us grows, we have to grow in the consciousness that we suffered a lot longer than they’re telling us we did,” Whaley said. Mumphrey reported from Phoenix and is a member of The Associated Press’ Race and Ethnicity team. “We have to fight twice as hard to have the same freedoms that our ancestors fought for hundreds of years ago,” she said. Associated Press writer Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville, Tennessee, and Aaron Morrison in New York City, contributed to this report. In Fort Worth, celebrations included the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo, named for the Black cowboy who is credited with introducing bulldogging, or steer wrestling. Celebrations in Texas included one at a Houston park created 150 years ago by a group of formerly enslaved men who bought the land. On Sunday, long lines formed from nearly every food stall, while a DJ played soulful house music for festively dressed attendees. In New York City, Juneteenth was celebrated across its five boroughs, with events drawing crowds that exceeded organizers’ expectations. And that is what this great nation must continue to do.” Yet many states have been slow to designate it as an official holiday. Many Black people celebrated the day just as they did before any formal recognition. As more people learn about Juneteenth, “we want to harness that and use this moment as a tool to educate people about history and not just African American history but American history,” said Ramon Manning, chairman of the board for the Emancipation Park Conservancy.

After years of advocating and campaigning, Juneteenth is being recognized as a federal, state and local holiday for the first time this year.

I think that if corporations want to participate, they should be doing it in a way that is respectful to the actual people in the groups that this holiday is set upon, which is Black American descendants of slavery and we're trying to start a conversation about corporate responsibility as well as equity,” said Birts, who organized a coalition focused on keeping companies from monetizing Juneteenth. The creation of a Juneteenth holiday has prompted corporations to create Juneteenth themed products. After years of advocating and campaigning, Juneteenth is being recognized as a federal, state and local holiday for the first time this year.

Celebrations of freedom took over Middle Tennessee streets this weekend in honor of Juneteenth.

However, it was also built on the land of a plantation once owned by the slave-owning Hadley family. This year marks the second annual federal observance of the holiday. Purchased by Nashville officials in 1912, Hadley Park was the first park bought by Metro Nashville intended for people of color and is considered to be the first public park for African Americans, according to the state's history marker.

Sunday is Juneteenth, a federal holiday to commemorate the day the Black community was freed from slavery. People in Fort Pierce held their own celebrations ...

The theme of the event is "Breaking the Chains" as organizers said there are still many prejudices in modern-day America. "Juneteenth is a celebration of Black culture, Black music, food, everything," said Baren Williams, who attended the event with her daughter. The event was organized by a group of seven working-class citizens who said they wanted to do something impactful for the community.

"This is America's holiday, not just African Americans' holiday," said Gerald Griggs, the Georgia state president of the NAACP civil rights organization. "It's ...

"I'll be honest, this is great fun, but I worry the young people don't think enough about what it means," Ware said. "I lived here through the Civil Rights movement, heard the Rev. King here. President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation became effective in 1863, during the Civil War, but could not be implemented until Union troops wrested areas from Confederate control.

A national celebration of the end of slavery that has its Oregon roots in a shipyard in the 1940s will be a state holiday this year.

I think it’s an exciting place to be because it is about truth, and it is about claiming how we became a nation economically built on the backs of those who were enslaved.” Now that Juneteenth is a state and federal holiday, Gordly said work must continue for Americans to understand why the day is celebrated. When Oregon became a state in 1859, the Constitution explicitly forbade Black or mixed-race people from living in the state, owning property or making contracts. “And here we are with it being a federal and a state holiday, but she put in all the footwork.” To honor the spirit of Juneteenth, public schools need to teach about Black history, including but not limited to slavery, Gordly said. But she didn’t learn about it in school, where she recalls learning about the Emancipation Proclamation and sometimes seeing a sentence about the holiday. Gordly thinks about the day in the context of Oregon’s history. “We want to embrace the fact that it’s an American celebration,” she said. It wasn’t until June 19, 1865, when word of the Emancipation Proclamation reached Texas, that all Americans were truly free. Peoples, who brought Juneteenth to Oregon from her home state of Oklahoma, died in 2015. Celebrations began in Texas the following year and migrated out. A sign at Linn-Benton Community College in Albany directs attendees to a Juneteenth event on Saturday, June 18.

One year after President Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday, more than 30 states have not authorized the funding that would allow for state employees ...

Now, 24 states, and the District of Columbia, have made it a paid holiday. “I just think it’s putting the cart before the horse to make a holiday people don’t know about,” Senator Hensley said during the hearing. President Ronald Reagan signed Dr. King’s birthday into federal law in 1983, but by 1990, Montana, New Hampshire and Arizona still had not made the day a legal holiday. Such actions show state employees, he added, that “‘this is a sacrifice on our part.’” The N.F.L. also stripped the Phoenix area of its rights to host the 1993 Super Bowl. Mr. Biden signed the holiday into federal law on June 17, 2021. Some have said that not enough people know about the holiday to make the effort worthwhile. The legislation was approved 148 to 1 in the state’s House of Representatives and 35 to 1 in the Senate. Since the effective date of the measure is Oct. 1, 2022, the first Juneteenth to be legally recognized as a state holiday will be in 2023. Though all 50 states have recognized Juneteenth by enacting some kind of proclamation celebrating it, its full adoption as an American holiday has yet to take root. Texas became the first state in the country to make Juneteenth a paid day off in 1980. Only two knew what it was, he said. In 1990, Arizonans voted against a measure that would have made the day a paid holiday, leading Stevie Wonder, the Doobie Brothers and Public Enemy to boycott the state in protest.

One year ago, I had the great honor of signing legislation to establish Juneteenth as a national holiday—the first new federal holiday since Dr. Martin.

That is why Vice President Harris and I have appointed leadership in the federal government that looks like America. Our Administration is taking a whole-of-government approach to advance equity and racial justice and address the lasting impacts of systemic racism on Black communities. To honor the true meaning of Juneteenth, we must not rest until we deliver the promise of America for all Americans. Juneteenth marks both the long, hard night of slavery and subjugation and a promise of a brighter morning to come.

Sam Collins, the Co-Chair and President of the Juneteenth Legacy Project, joined Indira Naidoo to reflect on the declaration of the Emancipation of Slaves and ...

Texas was the final state in what had been America's successionist South to end slavery following the official end of the Civil War. Sam Collins, the Co-Chair and President of the Juneteenth Legacy Project, joined Indira Naidoo to reflect on the declaration of the Emancipation of Slaves and the celebration of Juneteenth. Compelling science news, the meaning of Juneteenth in the US, and some fresh new music.

Columbia celebrated its sixth annual Juneteenth gathering at Riverwalk Park on Saturday, which became an official city holiday in 2020.

And to see the youth come out is the most touching," Massey said. "It's a beauty to see the diversity this year, that it's different and makes me feel like it's not just an African-American or black holiday. Now, it has become a very well-attended event that brings dozens of business owners, local chefs and artists to the park.

Background: Utica held its Juneteenth Celebration a day early at Chancellor Park on Saturday, June 18th, 2022. Juneteenth is the anniversary of June 19, ...

The monster is cast adrift and one day rescues a little girl from drowning. Yet, from his very first eye-opening inception, the monster is abandoned and ostracized by his own creator. I will never forget looking at my eyes in the rear view mirror and wondering then what it must be like for people who have to look over their shoulder every time they walk up the street or enter a store. I screamed at the man and told him he was barking up the wrong tree. The mere thought of this made me irate in a way I had never felt before. “I will avenge my injuries. Maybe we were looking for the same gift, I thought. Juneteenth is the anniversary of June 19, 1865, when the news slavery was outlawed finally reached Galveston, Texas. Utica’s longstanding annual celebration goes back to when African American Heritage Day was celebrated in August in the park. As in —- these are the types of conversations that can enlighten the minds and hearts on both sides. As in —- understanding how different life is in America for the oppressors and the oppressed. The profound irony with regard to the monster is that he is in inherently good and wants desperately to be embraced and loved. Freedom for all people in America may only be achieved when the oppressors learn to feel empathy for the oppressed —- and when the oppressed learn to feel a sense of forgiveness for the oppressors.

The Hollywood Bowl event celebrated Juneteenth, the holiday that marks the end of slavery in the US. From icons like Earth Wind & Fire to R&B stars like Khalid, ...

Gospel stars Mary Mary, Anthony Hamilton and Michelle Williams, who first grew to fame singing with Destiny's Child, took the audience to church at the end of the night with inspiring individual performances. Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, but many Black Americans have honored the date for years with parades, parties and family gatherings. "That would be celebrating freedom." Backstage, presenters Leslie Jones and Amanda Seales bopped along to the group's hit, "Poison." Act accordingly." (More on Lee below.)

African Americans throughout the nation celebrate Juneteenth, but who knows what actually happened on June 19, 1865? As the nation observes the second ...

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The federal government's embrace of Juneteenth is an occasion for both celebration and concern. Activists invested in the freedom of Black Americans rightly fear that the holiday will become commercialized and stripped of its radical, somber meaning.

Juneteenth would be a great opportunity to link up, or in some cases resurrect, the celebrations of Black freedom held in communities across the United States. Emancipation Day celebrations on January 1 were common in Black communities at the turn of the 20th century. Much of the heavy lifting to save Juneteenth from being another commercialized holiday has to be done by “everyday people.” This brings us to a final reflection on the potential power of Juneteenth. It should never be forgotten that the holiday itself originated in Texas and is at its heart a local story of emancipation. Considering the echoes of “redemption” by white Southerners to destroy Reconstruction via political violence in the South being felt in the January 6 “riot” at the Capitol building, this lesson is still sorely needed. The Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday in the mainstream press is too often only about his “I Have a Dream” speech, and ignores his radical critiques the triple evils of militarism, greed, and racism. Juneteenth offers the only opportunity on the federal election calendar to celebrate the genuine heroism of the Black men and women who went from toiling in fields to, at long last, being given a chance to learn how to read and write. For one, it is important to steer clear of what can be called the “MLK Day trap.” In other words, avoid making Juneteenth about one sliver of Black history, and instead make sure it captures the totality of the Black experiences of freedom in the summer of 1865. But less than a year later, Johnson reversed the order and returned the land to the plantation owners. Likewise, Juneteenth coverage focusing only on the moment the formerly enslaved in Texas learn of their freedom fails to miss how that day represents a broader history of the dream of emancipation—and the reality of broken promises. The general had asked Black Americans in Savannah, Ga., what could be done for them after their liberation by Union troops. The federal government’s embrace of Juneteenth is an occasion for both celebration and concern. Activists invested in the freedom of Black Americans rightly fear that the holiday will become commercialized and stripped of its radical, somber meaning.

Crass commercialization of a holiday is as American as a Labor Day sale, and so it is up to us to keep the true spirit of Juneteenth alive.

Juneteenth would be a great opportunity to link up, or in some cases resurrect, the celebrations of Black freedom held in communities across the United States. Emancipation Day celebrations on January 1 were common in Black communities at the turn of the 20th century. Much of the heavy lifting to save Juneteenth from being another commercialized holiday has to be done by “everyday people.” This brings us to a final reflection on the potential power of Juneteenth. It should never be forgotten that the holiday itself originated in Texas and is at its heart a local story of emancipation. Considering the echoes of “redemption” by white Southerners to destroy Reconstruction via political violence in the South being felt in the January 6 “riot” at the Capitol building, this lesson is still sorely needed. The Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday in the mainstream press is too often only about his “I Have a Dream” speech, and ignores his radical critiques the triple evils of militarism, greed, and racism. Juneteenth offers the only opportunity on the federal election calendar to celebrate the genuine heroism of the Black men and women who went from toiling in fields to, at long last, being given a chance to learn how to read and write. For one, it is important to steer clear of what can be called the “MLK Day trap.” In other words, avoid making Juneteenth about one sliver of Black history, and instead make sure it captures the totality of the Black experiences of freedom in the summer of 1865. But less than a year later, Johnson reversed the order and returned the land to the plantation owners. Likewise, Juneteenth coverage focusing only on the moment the formerly enslaved in Texas learn of their freedom fails to miss how that day represents a broader history of the dream of emancipation—and the reality of broken promises. The general had asked Black Americans in Savannah, Ga., what could be done for them after their liberation by Union troops. The federal government’s embrace of Juneteenth is an occasion for both celebration and concern. Activists invested in the freedom of Black Americans rightly fear that the holiday will become commercialized and stripped of its radical, somber meaning.

People across the United States gather for parades, parties and performances to celebrate Juneteenth holiday weekend.

19 June commemorates the end of slavery in the US and is a federal holiday. The day marks an opportunity to reflect on ways to combat racism in every ...

On the Strategic Intelligence platform, you can find feeds of expert analysis related to Systemic Racism, Human Rights and hundreds of additional topics. As a UK-based author of a related study details here, Black players are overwhelmingly praised for physical prowess, and white players for intelligence and character. It cited an alarming rise in hate speech and incitement to violence. However, some progress has been made on seeking reparations for slavery and the abuse that extended long past 19 June 1865. The push for federal holiday status gained momentum amid a racial reckoning that began in 2020. On 19 June 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued, Black people in Galveston, Texas were belatedly informed of their freedom by soldiers reading from a general order as they marched through town.

U.S. stock markets, banks and USPS are closed Monday for Juneteenth in 2022. Flashback: Because Juneteenth became a federal holiday just days ahead of the ...

Now we all have the ability to pursue the Founding Fathers' vision." Why it matters: Because Juneteenth is not recognized as a holiday in a majority of states, many state employees across the country are not allowed to take a paid vacation day to observe the holiday, which celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S. "We celebrate that day for American independence. - Flashback: Because Juneteenth became a federal holiday just days ahead of the holiday in 2021, there wasn’t time for many businesses, including the U.S. Postal Service and stock markets, to mark the day last year. - "Think about July 4th," Austion said. - This year, about 30% of private employers are offering Juneteenth as a paid holiday compared to 8% in 2020, according to survey data from the Wisconsin-basedInternational Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.

Since President Joe Biden declared the day a federal holiday last year, more companies are giving the day off, but few are commemorating it with additional ...

We should celebrate the end of slavery and America's progress toward racial justice. We should also reflect on how far the nation still needs to go.

Also known as Emancipation Day, the name blends “June” and “nineteenth” — the date in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced ...

Juneteenth marks the day when America at last began living up to its founding creed. Even as the national unemployment rate sits at a near-historic low of 3.6%, Black joblessness lags at 6.5%. The racial wealth gap — a pronounced failure of social policy — has only increased over the past 40 years. It’s not hard to understand why, though, a century and a half later, Douglass’s words still sting. The African American story from that day forward was one of halting progress — from the 15th Amendment, to Brown v. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour. In effect, it asks Americans to reconcile their national aspirations with the reality of persistent inequalities.

A historical context sheds some light. Juneteenth, also known as Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, and Black Independence Day was first celebrated by ...

Please see our republishing guidelines for use of photos and graphics. Between 2020 and 2022, five states (Texas, New York, Virginia, Washington, and Illinois) made it a paid holiday for state employees. But this time real freedom for all. Texas became the first state to designate Juneteenth as a state holiday. In 2002, eight other states joined Texas and Missouri followed suit in 2003. President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation, ending slavery in January of 1863—two and half years earlier.

Black Americans living overseas have embraced Juneteenth as a day of reflection and an opportunity to educate people in their host countries on Black ...

Michael Williams teaches African American history at Temple University in Tokyo and left the U.S. when he was 22. “But as a Black person within the Black community I’m like, ‘Yeah, let’s celebrate us.’” They don’t feel like they’re on solid ground in terms of being able to retire comfortably or pay off student debt or just cover their bills.” “A lot of people tend to enjoy hip-hop culture and the attire and certain parts of our culture, but I feel like it’s important to acknowledge all parts of Black culture,” she said. “As a kid, I remember the street being lined with street vendors, and there’s music going on and there’d be the Juneteenth parade rolling through,” he said. Windham has lived in Taiwan for five years, and had always celebrated Juneteenth growing up in Texas. For her, it’s an opportunity to educate people about a different part of American culture, even the darker parts. Payne, an organizer, has lived in Taiwan for 11 years and said he also celebrated Juneteenth growing up in Milwaukee, which has one of the oldest celebrations nationwide. He’s now 66 and had lived abroad for much of his adult life, but returned to the U.S. for graduate school in Boston and Baltimore. Wright plans to move in 2023 to Portugal. Through her podcast, she already knows of Juneteenth celebrations this weekend in Lisbon, the capital. “The commerciality of Juneteenth has become this like whole, ‘Put it on a T-shirt, put it on ice cream tubs’ type of thing,” she said. She moved to South Korea in 2019 and will celebrate Juneteenth on Sunday with a group of drag performers at a fundraising brunch for the Marsha P. Johnson Institute. While there are no official statistics tracking Black Americans moving abroad, many are discussing it more openly after the police killing of George Floyd. In the aftermath, many African Americans saw the U.S. “from the outside in” and made up their minds not to return.

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, editor of the Black Agenda, about celebrating Juneteenth without misappropriating the holiday.

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Union Gen. Gordon Granger set up his headquarters in Galveston, Texas, and famously signed an order June 19, 1865, "All slaves are free.

"We want the Juneteenth museum to help eliminate the scourge of modern slavery and human trafficking," Jackson says during a tour of the building. "Our city puts out a very positive image, but there is a dark side to Galveston," says Eugene Lewis, retired Galveston police commander and early Juneteenth booster. He built his own house and the houses of other emancipated people in town. "It was the men with the guns. Until recently, the structure was headquarters for a Texas homebuilder until earlier this year when June 19 Museum Inc., based in Washington D.C., acquired it. "Consistent with the American culture it's already being commercialized," she says. What was so unique about the Juneteenth Order that it is now a federal holiday? It was a church affair." Black people could go to the beaches there but we could not celebrate anyplace else." "It was not a piece of paper that freed enslaved people of Texas," he says. It was a family affair. With the new Juneteenth federal holiday, signed into law last year by President Biden, the city hopes it will also become a must-visit site of essential American history.

The troops told some of the last enslaved Americans that they were free. They were enforcing the Emancipation Proclamation, in which President Abraham Lincoln ...

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Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a proclamation on the celebration of Juneteenth in Iowa Monday, in its second year recognized as national holiday.

Ankeny hosted its second Juneteenth Festival this year on Saturday. Des Moines public libraries held several events with Iowa Juneteenth organizers on the history and celebration of the event. Iowa has celebrated Juneteenth for more than two decades longer than the nation at large. “I’m deeply grateful that it’s working so tirelessly to ensure Juneteenth has the prominent place in our collective memory that it deserves,” Reynolds said.

Today is the Juneteenth holiday—an observance of freedom and memory marking the emancipation by the Union Army of the last enslaved Black Americans in Texas in ...

While many Americans have observed it in the past, its emergence on the federal calendar should remind us that the legacies of bondage and slavery are not new to us—in our country, or at Middlebury. Juneteenth is a day Black people across the country come together to celebrate community. Wherever you are this summer season, please take some time today, and this week, to reflect on our histories, the forms of systemic racism that have shaped and continue to shape us, and the ways we can undo the legacies of oppression in the lives of Black Americans. Together we can imagine and continue to build more just communities in all the places where we live, work, and study.

African Americans throughout the nation celebrate Juneteenth, but who knows what actually happened on June 19, 1865? As the nation observes the second ...

That's what made the Juneteenth Order so memorable and made it succeed." "The freed are advised to remain at their present homes, and work for wages. Forty-one words of the brief 93-word order urged enslaved people to stay put and keep working. Sam Collins III, the unofficial ambassador of Juneteenth tourism in Galveston, says, "Granger is just one of the characters in the story. Fact: According to Cotham, Gen. Granger never read the order publicly, nor did any member of his staff. The news was widely covered in Texas newspapers—with an anti-abolitionist spin—and Black people would have overheard white people discussing it in private and in public.

The official federal holiday was on Sunday, marking the 157th anniversary of when the last slaves were finally set free in Texas.

Monday marked just the second time in U.S. history that the federal government has recognized Juneteenth. The holiday celebrates June 19, 1865, ...

We are an American family collectively, even when there are partisan political and ideological divisions. There were all these different versions of January 6 that really led to the end of Reconstruction in the 1870s and the 1880s. We had the rise of the convict lease system. And founders there would be in quotes, because we know that the founders of the country were actually multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural women, as well as men. So, on the one hand, we have got Juneteenth and supporters of multiracial democracy. So when we think about the personal as the political, this is as important a holiday for America as July 4 our is. They're stories of Black people trying to leave plantations in Eastern Texas and other places to reunite with loved ones. So Juneteenth sort of reflects a complicated history of America and American democracy. He's the author of the upcoming book "The Third Reconstruction: America's Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century." The city of Boston marked the holiday with a weekend celebration of Black arts and culture. In Galveston, Texas, home to the longest-running Juneteenth celebration, the past was alive. Monday marked just the second time in U.S. history that the federal government has recognized Juneteenth. The holiday celebrates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought word of slavery’s end to Galveston, Texas, freeing the last enslaved people after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.

Here are the best photos from backstage, in the crowd, and onstage at a joyful evening of culture and history in Hollywood. Photo recap of the Juneteenth event ...

Juneteenth, the longtime observance commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S. after a June 19, 1865 proclamation in Galveston, Texas, has been a nationally recognized federal holiday since 2021.... Juneteenth in Hollywood

Multiple Massachusetts communities observed Juneteenth over the long weekend. In the second year that the day commemorating the emancipation of enslaved ...

On Monday, the day of the federal holiday, smaller communities held their own celebrations. Waltham resident Sally Jean Baptiste came to the celebration with her four year old nephew, where they played lawn games laid out by organizers. Multiple Massachusetts communities observed Juneteenth over the long weekend.

Bjarke Ingels Group and Texas-firm KAI have unveiled renderings of the National Juneteenth Museum, which will be located in Fort Worth.

“Our hope is that this building will become a gateway to the Historic Southside community of Fort Worth while serving as a national and global destination,” said Alligood in the release. Fort Worth-based PR and marketing firm Sable Brands is the project developer. Like its predecessor, the new and considerably larger museum—envisioned as an “epicenter for education, preservation, and celebration of Juneteenth nationally and globally”—will include dedicated space for exhibitions and educational programming and be joined by a food hall showcasing local purveyors, a business incubator supporting Black entrepreneurs, a recording studio where museum-goers can document their own unique histories, and a 250-seat theatre for larger events. “As a Black architect, this project is one of the most rewarding experiences of my career,” said Alligood in a museum press release. The design is by Bjarke Ingels Group ( BIG) with Douglass Alligood serving as partner in charge on the estimated $70 million project. Late last week, local Fort Worth media shared initial design renderings of the planned museum along with news of an anticipated groundbreaking by the end of this year.

It was 1865, two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Union Army Major General Gordon Granger issued General Order #3 in ...

But I do want it to be an antidote to the venomous racist and false rhetoric against teaching and discussing the truth about nation’s racial past. The hopes and dreams of the newly freed that first Freedom Day are the foundation of the Juneteeth observance. And I also don’t want Juneteenth to be thought of as a kind of miracle balm to treat the deep wounds of racial hate. A way into dialogue about ongoing thorny issues of racial justice and the legacy of systemic racism. On the other hand, I don’t want to lose what made previous Juneteenth celebrations special — the intimacy of the grassroots gatherings featuring commemorative speeches, parades and communal feasts with focused attention on the meaning of the day. There was uncertainty that day about how their former owners would accept the news, but there was also relief and joy.

WASHINGTON – It took more than two years for news of the Emancipation Proclamation to reach the last enslaved people in Texas – and it may take as long to ...

“Anytime that Black people can come together in a celebratory reason or mood, it’s always going to be good as it creates opportunities for people to network and to build.” We’re still going through a whole lot of issues,” he said. Aquil Hameed, a Black business owner in Tucson, thinks it is great that Juneteenth is now recognized as a national holiday. “So this (observing Juneteenth) is just the beginning towards moving towards other issues that the country can recognize as part of our history.” We’re looking to get more steam from a state level,” said Cloves Campbell, the publisher of Arizona Informant Newspaper, which has been organizing an annual Valley of the Sun Juneteenth Celebration in Phoenix for almost 20 years. Juneteenth marks June 19, 1865, the day when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and told enslaved Black people there that they were free under the Emancipation Proclamation – which had been signed by President Abraham Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863.