In many places, Juneteenth has become a multicultural holiday. Observance today is primarily in local celebrations. As early festivals received news coverage, Janice Hume and Noah Arceneaux consider that they 'served to assimilate African-American memories within the dominant 'American story''. It was common for formerly enslaved people and their descendants to make a pilgrimage to Galveston. Celebrations were also characterized by elaborate large meals and people wearing their best clothing. African Americans were often prohibited from using public facilities for their celebrations, so they were often held at churches or near water. Early celebrations consisted of baseball, fishing, and rodeos. Historian Mitch Kachun considers that celebrations of the end of slavery have three goals: 'to celebrate, to educate, and to agitate'. The holiday is considered the 'longest-running African-American holiday' and has been called 'America's second Independence Day.' Juneteenth falls on June 19 and has often been celebrated on the third Saturday in June. Celebrations and traditions What Is Juneteenth?, a 2020 video by the House Democratic Caucus Traditional African dance and music performed for Juneteenth, 2019 Juneteenth became the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. The day was recognized as a federal holiday in 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law. Juneteenth celebrations may also include rodeos, street fairs, cookouts, family reunions, parties, historical reenactments, and Miss Juneteenth contests. Juneteenth is also celebrated by the Mascogos, descendants of Black Seminoles who escaped from slavery in 1852 and settled in Coahuila, Mexico.Ĭelebratory traditions often include public readings of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, singing traditional songs such as ' Swing Low, Sweet Chariot' and ' Lift Every Voice and Sing', and the reading of works by noted African-American writers, such as Ralph Ellison and Maya Angelou. state and the District of Columbia has formally recognized the holiday in some way. Beginning with Texas by proclamation in 1938, and by legislation in 1979, every U.S. 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. Participants in the Great Migration brought these celebrations to the rest of the country. They spread across the South and became more commercialized in the 1920s and 1930s, often centering on a food festival. Originating in Galveston, Juneteenth has since been observed annually in various parts of the United States, often broadly celebrating African-American culture.Įarly celebrations date back to 1866, at first involving church-centered community gatherings in Texas. Its name is a portmanteau of 'June' and 'nineteenth', as it is celebrated on the anniversary of June 19, 1865, when in the wake of the American Civil War, Major General Gordon Granger ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas. Juneteenth (officially Juneteenth National Independence Day) is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the end of slavery.

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