Juneteenth; A celebration that took the main stage after 155 long years.

“This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn,” said Frederick Douglass on July 5, 1852, during an event commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence. “I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me.”

This holiday was given its name - Juneteenth - by conjoining the words “June” and “nineteenth”. It commemorates the official coda of slavery in the United States. Juneteenth - also known as Freedom Day, Liberation Day, Emancipation Day, and Jubilee Day - is a federal holiday in the United States celebrating the liberation of enslaved African Americans. This festival originated in Galveston, Texas, and has been celebrated annually on July 19 in numerous areas of the United States since 1866. In 1872, Emancipation Park in Houston, Texas was established as a site of Juneteenth celebrations. It was purchased by a group of formerly enslaved people who put together $800 and started the first annual celebration. Though people have been celebrating this day for many decades, it was officially recognized as a federal holiday on June 17, 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law. Juneteenth’s celebration is on the jubilee date of the announcement that was given on June 19, 1865, proclaiming freedom for every single one of the enslaved people in Texas. President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, also known as Proclamation 95 was an executive order that was endowed by the United States President (who, at the time happened to be Abraham Lincoln) on September 22, 1862, in the course of the civil war. The emancipation of these enslaved people in Texas was fulfilled only two and a half years later. This occurred only after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation proclamation. A few of the traditions of this holiday include singing traditional songs, reading the works of popular and well-respected African-American writers - like Maya Angelou, Ralph Ellison, etc - and people publicly reading the Emancipation Proclamation. There are a variety of celebrations that occur on this day. The most common include historical reenactments, rodeos, street fairs, Miss Juneteenth pageants, etc. Jubilee Day is the first holiday to be declared a federal one since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was proclaimed as a holiday in 1986. America calls itself the “land of the free”, yet has only recently started to honour one of the most important days for freedom in the country. Out of the fifty states in the United States, 49 of them - and Washington D.C. - have already acknowledged Juneteenth as a federal state/ceremonial holiday. The only state that is yet to recognize Juneteenth as such is South Dakota. A gradually increasing number of companies have decided to honour Juneteenth after the 2020 racial justice protests. Mainstream media has recently started recognising the holiday, with ABC’s Black-ish and FX’s Atlanta both featuring episodes that prominently celebrate it. Through tradition this holiday persist: small celebrations have been happening throughout the States through the years. Grade parades, neighbourhood gathering, and festival have started to grow, with picnics and barbeques. One of the most important parts of this festival is the food. The most prominent dish of this day is known as “the Marcus Garvey salad”. This dish is made with red, black, and green beans. It gets its name from the black activist. Traditionally, red drinks and red foods are a must at these barbecues, with red symbolizing resilience. There is still much progress to be made in the African-American struggle, and the gesture of making Juneteenth a federal holiday needs to be solidified by more meaningful actions. Black people across the country, across ages, genders and professions face blatant inequality and aggression. Nevertheless, today is a day for them to take a rest and celebrate their ancestors and for their allies to support them.

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Srijanya Srinivasan and Hia Sadho