New Jersey celebrating Juneteenth is an important gesture, but meaningful investment and policy must accompany our proclamations.
And we can establish a Baby Bonds program to provide low-income youth, many of color, the resources they need to thrive and transition successfully into adulthood ( A1579/S768). Both of these bills would help close New Jersey’s gaping racial wealth gap. Yet there are several bills pending in our state legislature lacking legislators’ political will and courage for passage. In order to make the promise of freedom full and real, meaningful investment and policy must accompany our proclamations. Despite being a northern state known for its progressivism, the Garden State suffers from extraordinary racial disparities. New Jersey is celebrating Juneteenth as a state holiday this year for the second time. It’s an important gesture, and the celebrations are inspiring.
The holiday is meant to commemorate emancipation from slavery.
Below you'll find a selection of lessons. What they're saying: "When you live in a society like ours, there's always the danger that these sorts of holidays will be absorbed into a kind of market, consumer-based. Why it matters: Juneteenth became a federal holiday just last year. - "You don't just want to commercialize it. without the holiday, those two different events wouldn't have happened," Glaude said. 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.
For Texas slaves in particular, the Juneteenth declaration signaled the beginning of a new life. In the context of significant dates in American history, the ...
She has also attended Angelo State University for graduate courses and studied Texas Family Law at Sam Houston State University. She lives just on the edge of the Chihuahua desert in west Texas. Instead of the American dream, after the Civil War came a baptism into the realm of racism in the form of Jim Crow laws which re-segregated the south. And white people own 86 percent of the wealth in the United States versus less than three percent for Blacks. Depending on when you were born, the experience of each generation will factor into behavior and outcomes in the workplace differently; meaning that inclusion is not a one-size-fits all. In the context of significant dates in American history, the day freedom is awarded becomes a milestone like no other. For Texas slaves in particular, the Juneteenth declaration signaled the beginning of a new life.
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.
That June 19 in 1865, the day we now celebrate as a nation, was the day that Black Texans officially received some of the stalest news in American history.
The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. She’d heard the testimonies of those who’d had to navigate both the tragedy of slavery and the terror of emancipation. I regret not asking more questions about our family, about her life in Pelham. As more folks in Clarice’s generation pass away, we are losing the final physical links to those who know our history — who are our history. Gen. Joseph Jones Reynolds, a commander of the Department of Texas during Reconstruction, commented in 1868, “The murder of Negroes is so common as to render it impossible to keep an accurate account of them.” The Equal Justice Initiative has tried, reporting that more than 2,000 Black women, men and children were victims of racial terrorist lynchings during Reconstruction, which lasted from 1865 to 1877. I was born in Texas, as were my parents and most of my kin, all the way back to at least the 19th century, when some of them were enslaved. We can do no better this Juneteenth than to spend time with the elders who are still with us. Most of all, I think of how each year, my cousin Rhodia Fay would rise before our congregation and recite James Weldon Johnson’s “The Crucifixion” a long dramatic poem detailing Christ’s murder. I don’t even have to explain the absurdity of the F.B.I. wishing us all a happy Martin Luther King’s Birthday. I was raised an evangelical Christian and sometimes think of all those Easter Sundays spent in church. If we got upset about some Juneteenth ice cream, imagine how those roughly 250,000 enslaved Texans must have felt when they found out they had been the victims of horrendous overtime fraud. Then I asked myself, how exactly should the whole nation celebrate a day like this? “Lemme know when the reparations check arrives.”
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.
BANGKOK (AP) — As the United States marks only the second federally recognized Juneteenth, Black Americans living overseas have embraced the holiday as a ...
On June 17, 2021, President Biden signed legislation making Juneteenth, a Texas-based commemoration of the last group of slaves learning in 1865 that ...
A year ago, Zak Cheney-Rice offered a sobering reminder of the broader trajectory of racial politics during the previous administration: Human equality remains a dangerously controversial aspiration, and achieving it will be the work of generations. Indeed, the ensuing year has been deeply discouraging for the cause of racial justice. Those who misremember MLK as a crusader against race consciousness are emulating the white-washing backlash against Reconstruction that, to an incredible extent, negated the emancipation of slaves and kept many of their descendants subjugated for another century. On June 17, 2021, President Biden signed legislation making Juneteenth, a Texas-based commemoration of the last group of slaves learning in 1865 that slavery had ended, a federal holiday. The holiday’s “mix of low risk and low cost has made it an appealing virtue signal,” my colleague Zak Cheney-Rice argued at the time.
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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DeSuze, the owner of the Black feminist bookstore Cafe con Libros in Brooklyn, curates an eclectic list of Juneteenth-related reads include everything from ...
It followed the film she made that is equally beautiful, but it tells a very specific story to the island and to the history of those people from a Black female perspective.” Again, this is set on the Geechee islands about this family of women who are beautiful mystics, and the ways in which they try to survive and keep their family alive on that island is the most beautiful story. “I really wanted to add a cookbook, because there is so much history and politics in Black food, and I feel like when we do these kinds of reading lists, we don’t always acknowledge that, even when it feels so important. It adds a different layer and a texture to the way we understand these stories.” “It’s a book about love, activism, and empowerment, but it’s also about the ways in which Laetitia Ky uses hair as a place of political activism and pushback. “But I wanted to think about the actual meaning of Juneteenth, from the history around it to the ways in which Black folks and in particular Black women have moved through it, through culture, through activism, through our hair, even, which can be a point of both resistance and joy.”
The holiday celebrating the emancipation of slaves in Texas is gaining recognition as protests against police brutality continue in the United States.
“What I want us to do is never have to do Juneteenth again and celebrate all the things that are true about us that are already here right now that we just don't know about. Rising soul singer Jordan Hawkins, a North Carolina native, says he looks forward to attending the Juneteenth music and arts festival in Los Angeles’ Leimert Park on June 18, which will feature more than 300 Black-owned businesses. During the Bounce Trumpet Awards celebrating Black humanitarians, she posed a question of reflection to the Black community. “That's what I would love people to spend Juneteenth doing, is recognizing that that holiday was about the last of us finding out that we were freer than we thought,” she said. But the African American community had been celebrating long before Juneteenth was made a federal holiday. It marks the day when the last enslaved African Americans found out about their freedom.
After Opal Lee led hundreds in a walk through her Texas hometown to celebrate Juneteenth, the 95-year-old Black woman who helped successfully push for the ...
To some, Summer Clayton's one-way conversations may seem silly. Throughout June, advertisements from brands featuring Pride imagery appear on televisions, billboards and especially social media feeds. The Senate has decided to follow suit with the House of Commons in lifting its COVID-19 vaccine mandate on June 20. To some, Summer Clayton's one-way conversations may seem silly. "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. 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. "We have to fight twice as hard to have the same freedoms that our ancestors fought for hundreds of years ago," she said. Celebrations in Texas included one at a Houston park created 150 years ago by a group of formerly enslaved men who bought the land. In Fort Worth, celebrations included the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo, named for the Black cowboy who is credited with introducing bulldogging, or steer wrestling. Yet many states have been slow to designate it as an official holiday. And that is what this great nation must continue to do."
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.
People across the U.S. gathered to celebrate Juneteenth, which commemorates the day in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, ...
"We have to fight twice as hard to have the same freedoms that our ancestors fought for hundreds of years ago," she said. 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. Yet many states have been slow to designate it as an official holiday. A year after U.S. President Joe Biden signed legislation last year making June 19 the nation's 12th federal holiday, Americans across the country gathered this weekend at events filled with music, food and fireworks. Many people celebrated the day just as they did before any formal recognition.
DALLAS (AP) — After Opal Lee led hundreds in a walk through her Texas hometown to celebrate Juneteenth, the 95-year-old Black woman who helped successfully ...
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.)
BANGKOK (AP) — As the United States marks only the second federally recognized Juneteenth, Black Americans living overseas have embraced the holiday as a ...
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. 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. 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. Wright, 47, hosts a podcast “Blaxit Global” and said many of her guests are tired of the U.S. “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. BANGKOK (AP) — As the United States marks only the second federally recognized Juneteenth, Black Americans living overseas have embraced the holiday as a day of reflection and an opportunity to educate people in their host countries on Black history.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Juneteenth is a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. It is also called Emancipation Day or Juneteenth Independence Day. The na...
As an African American Sergeant Major in the Army, it shows how our military has and continues to adapt and overcome the plagues of our nation's history. It is a time to reflect on its history and the growth of our nation. Juneteenth is important to our ranks because it shows that we will all be treated with dignity and respect regardless of our race or background." As an African American Sergeant Major in the Army, it shows how our military has and continues to adapt and overcome the plagues of the nation's history. It is a time to reflect on its history and the growth of the nation. The Emancipation Proclamation officially freed all enslaved people in the rebelling Southern states in 1863; however, some areas without the presence of the Union Army didn't enforce it.
A Mercer survey of 400 companies found that 33% of companies currently offer Juneteenth as a paid holiday to their employees, and an additional 11% say they ...
Part of the issue is retention: A report from Mercer found that the turnover rate for Black employees was 26%, compared to 17% for White employees. White and Hispanic Americans are less likely to have “a lot” or “some knowledge” about Juneteenth — the day enslaved Black people in Texas found out they were emancipated — a Gallup poll released last year found. 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 programming or philanthropy.
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.
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.
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.
Now that Juneteenth is celebrating its second anniversary as an official U. S holiday, the debate on just how to commemorate the day rages on.
The collection is impressive, providing a nice balance between history, the present and the future while also shining a light on black history, black filmmakers and Oscar-worthy performances by black actors. The holiday takes place on June 19, to commemorate the date when enslaved people in Texas were finally notified of the Emancipation Proclamation - 2.5 years after it was signed. And some, well, are binging black films on Apple AAPL Black Film Archive.
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.
Celebrities used their platforms over the Juneteenth weekend to celebrate, reflect and educate on June 19, which became a federal holiday last year.
"African Americans and also communities beyond that have been celebrating Juneteenth for generations without it being federalized ... it wasn't something that we need permission to look at," she told the outlet. It is how we break free," she wrote, adding, "Happy Juneteenth everyone." A time of rememberance of those who built this country and space for black Americans to honor our ancestors," she shared in a story. A day to celebrate the autonomy of our does and freedom from slavery. This is our 3rd year and we’ve raised nearly half a million dollars for black businesses and organizations," she shared on Instagram Sunday, directing followers to lizzolovesyou.com for more information on getting involved. "Juneteenth is about giving black citizens of this country our own Declaration of Independence. It is about the complicated and nuanced history we have with this country.