By: Corrine Hung
In the United States, Juneteenth,connected with July 4th, is the holiday where African-Americans celebrate their independence through festivals, partying, parades, and church services. It is the celebration for June 19 1865, the day African Americans wereinformed that they gained fullhuman rights and freedoms.
Back then, African-Americans were enslaved people.. Before the Civil War, they started to protest and gave speeches for people to see the unfairness between black and white. And at last, on June nineteenth, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger landed in Texas and brought the news that enslaved people werefree.
One year after the event, a freeman started celebrating the day and named it “Jubilee Day.” People used it as political rallies and gave voting instructions to freed African Americans. And this is where the holiday begins.
However, no one, especially African Americans, had no time to celebrate the event in the 20ths century when they needed to find new jobs and were forced to stop. Still, they wanted to have the day for celebration. The Texas State Fair lent a hand and contributed to its revival, where they joined the “Juneteenth Jamboree,” leading it closer to now.
The president officially made the day a state holiday on January 1, 1980, and the day became a federal holiday in 1996. It’s known as the “Juneteenth Independence Day” and has been celebrated by Americans since then.
Historian Mitch Kachun considers that celebrations of the end of slavery have three goals: “to celebrate, to educate, and to agitate.”To celebrate the day that African American own their rights. To educate people and not tragically involve the same problem. And to agitate all people to stop racial discrimination and unite all Americans.
Audre Lorde is a self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet” from 1934–1992. Lorde dedicated her life to confronting the injustice of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. She says, “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.”.
“I have a duty,” Lorde said, “to speak the truth as I see it and to share not just my triumphs, not just the things that felt good, but the pain, the intense, often unmitigating pain.”
Lorde wrote journals about the tragic sights she saw and informed people about them. Her poems touched people’s hearts and got them to know that it isn’t over; there’s still discrimination.
Once, people gave speeches, wrote, and protested despite threats of arrest.. Now, people celebrate Juneteenth as a reminder of it. Leading the path of freedom closer, and that is what Juneteenth is really about.
Source: wikipedia(Juneteenth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth#End_of_slavery_in_Texas
about Audre Lorde https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/audre-lorde washington post (Juneteenth) https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/17/juneteenth-holidays-slavery-emancipation/