This coming Sunday marks Juneteenth, the most popular annual celebration of the end of slavery in the United States many people have never heard of.
Everyone at Clockwise is taking the day off on Monday to commemorate Juneteenth and to reflect on Black American history. Here’s a bit of that history.
Juneteenth’s history
Contrary to popular belief, the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the United States. It only freed slaves in Confederate states, in areas liberated by Union troops. Slaves in border states remained legally enslaved until Congress ratified the 13th Amendment.
Slaves in Texas had to wait even longer.
Two and half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, on June 19, 1865, Union soldier General Granger stepped out onto the balcony at Ashton Villa, in Galveston, Texas. There, at the former headquarters of the Army of the Confederate States of America, Granger read General Orders Number Three, informing slaves that the war was over and that they were free.
Texas slaveowners had refused to acknowledge the war was over or give up their slaves. In fact, Texas’ slave population exploded to 250,000 during the Civil War. After the Union captured New Orleans slaveowners in Mississippi, Louisiana and surrounding states brought their slaves to Texas to hide from the Union.
The next year, freed slaves in Texas started celebrating “Jubilee Day'' under the Ashton Villa balcony with barbeque, foot races, horse races, baseball games, spiritual music, and homemade fireworks. They’d cut holes in trees, fill the holes with gunpowder, and set it on fire. But it wasn’t just a celebration - it was a civic gathering. Politicians would deliver stump speeches, and activists would encourage Black Americans to register to vote.
By the early 1900s “Jubilee Day” (also known as “Freedom Day”) had become Juneteenth, a portmanteau of the date. It also spread to other states, including Oklahoma, southwest Arkansas, and parts of Louisiana.
Around the same time, between 1882 and 1968, Texas had the third-highest number of lynchings in the US.
Understanding Juneteenth’s meaning
As Annette Gordon-Reed put it, “Although important, Granger’s reading of an executive order—an order based upon the will of a President already assassinated, two months earlier, by a man who feared black equality—was only a tiny step toward the work that had to be done.”
From the 1910s to 1930s, large-scale Juneteenth celebrations became less frequent. This was a time of rising nativism, racial terror (e.g., the Red Summer lynchings of 1919-1921), and Jim Crow. Many felt that it wasn’t patriotic to celebrate the end of a dark period in American history.
Shortly before the US entered WWII, Juneteenth saw a renaissance. In 1979, Texas became the first state to recognize Juneteenth as an official holiday. Since then, 41 other states and the District of Columbia have recognized Juneteenth as a state holiday or holiday observance.
In 2020, the Black Lives Matter protests reinvigorated interest in Juneteenth. The protests were aimed at honoring the lives of Black Americans killed by police, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Rayshard Brooks. And, more broadly, the protests highlighted systemic racism and violence towards Black Americans.
Last year, the US government made Juneteenth a federal holiday. President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, making it the 11th federal holiday and the first new federal holiday since 1983’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
In 2021, many organizations had little notice and many stayed open. These included the U.S. Postal Service, some federal courts, and many school districts. This year the Juneteenth federal holiday will be observed June 20th. Banks, federal offices, many state and local offices, the U.S. Post Office, and many businesses will observe by closing this year.
The importance of Juneteenth
Slavery and racism are not ancient historical artifacts, but ongoing failures to live up to the full promise of the United States of America.
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, but established a loophole for “criminals.” Today the United States incarcerates a greater percentage of our population than any other country but one. Systemic racism persists in nearly every aspect of American society, including policing, courts, education, healthcare, even land-use regulation.
"The emancipation of enslaved Black Americans didn't mark the end of America's work to deliver on the promise of equality; it only marked the beginning," Biden said before signing Juneteenth into law in 2021. "To honor the true meaning of Juneteenth, we have to continue toward that promise because we've not gotten there yet."
How to celebrate Juneteenth
Traditionally, people have celebrated Juneteenth through rodeos, fishing, barbecuing, dancing, and baseball. For commemoration, many communities host prayer services, speakers, and public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation.
At Clockwise, we’re hosting a Juneteenth educational Lunch & Learn around the history, traditions, and importance of Juneteenth on the 15th.
We’re also actively working to recognize Black leaders in our field, address DE&I concerns, ameliorate the harms of racism in policing, and make tech more ethical.
And as part of that we’re taking Juneteenth off to celebrate how far we’ve come and to recognize how far we still have to go.
About the author
Cathy Reisenwitz is the former Head of Content at Clockwise. She has covered business software for six years and has been published in Newsweek, Forbes, the Daily Beast, VICE Motherboard, Reason magazine, Talking Points Memo and other publications.
