Editor’s note: This advisory was first published last year on June 19, 2021. It has been updated and is being republished today as the country celebrates the June federal holiday.
Opinion. President Joe Biden signed the legislation into law three years into law making Juneteenth a national holiday. Juneteenth, also called Freedom Day, celebrates June 19, 1865, the date the people of Texas were informed that slavery was over.
On June 19, 1865, Major General. Gordon Granger conveyed the message in General Orders, Number 3:
“The people of Texas are hereby informed that, in accordance with a proclamation of the Executive Branch of the United States, all slaves are free. This implies an absolute equality of personal and property rights between former masters and slaves, and the connection that has hitherto existed between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly in their current homes and work for wages. They are told that they are not allowed to gather at military posts and that they will not be supported in their idleness there or elsewhere.”
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On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger delivered the message in General Orders, Number 3:
“The people of Texas are hereby informed that, in accordance with a proclamation of the Executive Branch of the United States, all slaves are free. This implies an absolute equality of personal and property rights between former masters and slaves, and the connection which has hitherto existed between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly in their current homes and work for wages. They are told that they are not allowed to gather at military posts and that they will not be supported in their idleness there or elsewhere.”
The Order arrived two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, and two months after the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who ended the Civil War at Appomattox two months earlier.
Even without the modern technology of the internet, social media and 24-hour cable news, the slowdown in time is almost laughable these days. The leaders of Texas at the time really did not want the Civil War to be over and certainly did not want slavery to end. Someone could have sent a telegram sooner or played an 1860 version of Paul Revere on Horseback to tell the Texans the news sooner.
Perhaps there is something about Texas that has lingered for decades, making Texas leaders resistant to good race relations. Two days before President Biden signed the Juneteenth legislation, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a controversial Republican bill banning Texas educators from teaching about racism in the classroom.
Although the bill does not specifically mention “critical race theory,” it is labeled as an anti-critical race bill.
Critical race theory is an academic concept that argues that racism is a social construct that does not arise from individual biases or prejudices.
Some don’t want teachers discussing racism in public classrooms.
The Texas bill included compromises written into law by Democratic lawmakers, such as the ability to teach about white supremacy. This irritated Abbott, who promised that the Legislature would send him a stronger version for his signature, declaring that race relations cannot be taught in public schools.
Abbott is among Republican governors seeking to ban critical race theory from being taught to students. These Republicans are acting if racism did not exist in the United States. This erasure of reality is called the history of money laundering.
Because of this strong resistance from the Republican-controlled legislatures and governors, I was happy to see Juneteenth become a federal holiday. It should be noted that Biden’s signature will not solve race relations in the United States.
In recognition of Juneteenth, the National Congress of American Indians released a statement:
“Today we honor and celebrate Juneteenth as a national holiday. On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas with news that the Civil War had ended and the slaves were now free.
A civil war continues to this day. It never really ended. Frankly, we remain deeply divided as a country and, along with our Black brothers and sisters, have yet to break free from the shackles of centuries of systemic and institutional racism, oppression, and marginalization.
Our day of freedom and emancipation will undoubtedly come. Until then, we will continue to speak our painful truths, demand justice and equality for all, and ascend to God’s perfect glory for each of us individually and for this great nation as a whole.
The national holiday of Juneteenth does not end a long history of poor race relations in the United States, but it is certainly a time of remembrance and should shine a light on how much progress is still needed.
Thayék gde nwéndëmen – We are all related.
About the Author: “Levi \”Calm Before the Storm\” Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation) is the founder, publisher and editor of Native News Online. Rickert was awarded the Best Column 2021 Native Media Award for the print category\/ online by the Native American Journalists Association. He is a member of the advisory board of the Multicultural Media Correspondents Association. He can be reached at levi@nativenewsonline.net.
Contact: levi@nativenewsonline.net
