What is Juneteenth and why do we celebrate it?

Juneteenth (officially Juneteenth National Independence Day and also known as Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, and Black Independence Day) is a federal holiday in the United States.

It is celebrated to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved black Americans.

President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, issued on January 1, 1863, had freed the enslaved people in Texas and all the other Southern secessionist states of the Confederacy except for parts of states not in rebellion.

Why do we celebrate Juneteenth?

A mentioned earlier, Juneteenth is celebrated to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved black Americans and is often observed for celebrating African-American culture.

Celebrations of Juneteenth dates back to 1866, at first involving church-centered community gatherings in Texas and then it spread across the South and became more commercialized in the 1920s and 1930s, often centering on a food festival.

Juneteenth originated in Galveston, Texas, and it has been celebrated annually on June 19 in various parts of the United States since 1865.

The day was recognized as a federal holiday on June 17, 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law.

Participants in the Great Migration out of the South carried their celebrations to other parts of the country.

During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, these celebrations were eclipsed by the nonviolent determination to achieve civil rights, but grew in popularity again in the 1970s with a focus on African American freedom and African-American arts.

Beginning with Texas by proclamation in 1938, and by legislation in 1979, each U.S. state and the District of Columbia have formally recognized the holiday in some way.