In June 2021, Juneteenth — also known as Emancipation Day — became a federal holiday. First recognized as a state holiday in Texas in the 1980s, states like New York, Virginia, and Illinois soon followed suit. An important part of Black history, Juneteenth has been recognized and celebrated by Black families for years. But exactly what is Juneteenth and how did it come to be a federal holiday?
Juneteenth history
Teaching the true history of Juneteenth
What is Juneteenth if we're not teaching our kids the true history of chattel slavery? For many of us, our school curricula wrapped up slavery in a nice neat bow by telling us that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. We recognize now that it wasn't as cut-and-dried as we were led to believe. Plantation owners did not willingly agree to let their free labor simply walk away. There were challenges, uprisings, and killings; chattel slavery did not go quietly.
"I feel cheated that this information was mostly overshadowed or completely omitted in the history I was taught in school," Vanessa Suzette, homeschooling mom and realtor, wrote. "It wasn't until I got to college that I began the rabbit hole of learning about all of this country's history, including the excluded and often muted stories of my ancestors."
What we can do for our children today is teach them that when Frederick Douglas gave his "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?", speech in 1852, he was speaking of what Juneteenth came to celebrate. Independence Day did not mean freedom for enslaved Africans. Freedom was a process that began on Juneteenth and still continues in a variety of ways, today.
Now that Juneteenth is a federal holiday, pages will be added to the history textbooks. Commercialized celebrations will emerge and there will be parades, backyard barbecues, and community picnics. But through all of that, it's important to ensure that our children's bookshelves are filled with books that illustrate the true history of Emancipation Day. We owe it to our children to tell them that despite the holiday, there is still work to be done to address the ever-growing disparities within the Black community.
