Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren vog Obam here with a classic episode
Speaker 1: from our archives. Usually for these weekend classics, I try
Speaker 1: to pull episodes that are at least three years old,
Speaker 1: just to give some of our older material new life.
Speaker 1: Um but as this episode publishes, it's June nineteenth, also
Speaker 1: known as the holiday Juneteenth or Black Independence Day. This
Speaker 1: has been in the news a lot over the past
Speaker 1: week as the United States has made it an official
Speaker 1: national holiday, which is great, though it is only one
Speaker 1: very small step toward acknowledging and hopefully healing the dire
Speaker 1: effects of slavery and racism in America's past and present. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: in honor of the holiday, I wanted to pull this
Speaker 1: episode from just last year, on how June tenth got started.
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam here. Every year on
Speaker 1: June nine, millions of people across a come together to
Speaker 1: celebrate Juneteenth with parties and parades, prayer, breakfasts and golf tournaments,
Speaker 1: cookouts and music. We spoke with Paula Austin, a professor
Speaker 1: of African American studies and history at Boston University. She said,
Speaker 1: you'd be surprised. There are many students who get to
Speaker 1: my class and they sort of never learned about the
Speaker 1: history of enslavement. They've never learned about the Civil rights movement.
Speaker 1: I think they've had students who, because of where they're
Speaker 1: from or their families, know about Juneteenth and have actually
Speaker 1: participated in the celebrations. But most students come and they
Speaker 1: don't know. But let's go back to the beginning. On
Speaker 1: June nineteenth, eighteen sixty five, more than two months after
Speaker 1: Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant
Speaker 1: at Athmatics, which all but ended the Civil War, a U. S.
Speaker 1: Army officer by the name of Major General Gordon Granger
Speaker 1: arrived in Galveston, Texas with two momentous announcements, the end
Speaker 1: of the Civil War and with it, the end of slavery.
Speaker 1: Nobody is quite sure why it took so long for
Speaker 1: the news of emancipation to reach Texas. Several stories have
Speaker 1: been told throughout the years, though none has ever been confirmed,
Speaker 1: including one of an earlier messenger who was killed on
Speaker 1: his way to Texas to tell the news of freedom.
Speaker 1: Others believe that some enslavers knew the truth but simply
Speaker 1: continued going about business as usual. The most likely is
Speaker 1: simply that there were not enough troops to enforce the
Speaker 1: Emancipation Proclamation, whether enslaved people knew about it or not,
Speaker 1: so things remained status quo, that is until Major General
Speaker 1: Granger showed up. After Granger's announcement, some of the two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand freed people in Texas immediately left
Speaker 1: for the promise of true freedom in the North, while
Speaker 1: others traveled to rejoin family members. One formerly enslaved person,
Speaker 1: Molly Harrold, said, in the Slave Narratives of Texas, we
Speaker 1: all walked down the road, singing and shouting to beat
Speaker 1: the band. Others stayed defined, paying work in the fields
Speaker 1: and elsewhere. That day marks what is now often called
Speaker 1: Black in Dependence Day or the Black fourth of July.
Speaker 1: It's the American celebration of Freedom from Slavery. Juneteenth was
Speaker 1: first observed in Texas in eighteen sixty six. It wasn't
Speaker 1: officially recognized as a holiday in any state until Texas
Speaker 1: did so in nineteen seventy nine. In recent years, both
Speaker 1: the U. S. House of Representatives and the U. S.
Speaker 1: Senate have formally recognized June nineteenth as Juneteenth Independence Day.
Speaker 1: U S. Senator Corey Booker said in on this day,
Speaker 1: we must confront the ugly parts of our history and
Speaker 1: honor the slaves who suffered and died under a repressive regime.
Speaker 1: We must also pay tribute to all those who had
Speaker 1: the strength and conviction to fight to end slavery and
Speaker 1: keep our union together. Juneteenth Independence Day is also an
Speaker 1: important moment to recognize how far we've come and take
Speaker 1: note of how far we have yet to go. Certainly,
Speaker 1: during the original Juneteenth there was still a lot of
Speaker 1: work to be done. It came just months after the
Speaker 1: Civil War ended, and two years to the Emancipation Proclamation
Speaker 1: was signed by President Abraham Lincoln. The thirteenth Amendment to
Speaker 1: the U. S Constitution, which abolished slavery, had been passed
Speaker 1: by Congress and was well on its way to being
Speaker 1: ratified by the States, but the fourteenth and fifteen guaranteeing
Speaker 1: equal protection and the right to vote to all citizens
Speaker 1: regardless of skin color, were still a couple of years off,
Speaker 1: and not all enslaved people in Texas were immediately freed.
Speaker 1: Some held by defiant plantation owners were not emancipated. Until
Speaker 1: much later. Some formerly enslaved people who tried to leave,
Speaker 1: Historical reports show were tracked down and killed. Many more
Speaker 1: stepped into a future of poverty, fear, and uncertainty. Austin
Speaker 1: suggests that many americans ignorance about Juneteenth stems from a
Speaker 1: disinclination to completely face the country's past with slavery, and
Speaker 1: it's far reaching and continuing aftermath. Still, Juneteenth has persevered.
Speaker 1: It's observance has waned through the years under the oppression
Speaker 1: of Jim Crow laws and attitudes, but the festivities that
Speaker 1: began and in Texas eventually spread to more states, and
Speaker 1: the idea of commemorating black independence picked up through the
Speaker 1: Civil rights era of the nineteen sixties, and the parties
Speaker 1: continue today. Austin said, the kinds of celebrations that I've
Speaker 1: seen and been a part of have been incredibly wonderful.
Speaker 1: They're about Black culture, They're about Black history. They're about
Speaker 1: the resistance and the resilience of the black community. Several
Speaker 1: years before Granger made his June nineteenth declaration in Galveston,
Speaker 1: famed American orator Frederick Douglas, himself formerly enslaved, spoke to
Speaker 1: an abolitionist group in New York about the fourth of
Speaker 1: July as being a day of independence and how it
Speaker 1: didn't fit for all Americans. He said, what to the
Speaker 1: American slave, is your fourth of July? I answer, A
Speaker 1: day that reveals to him, more than all other days
Speaker 1: in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which
Speaker 1: he is the constant victim. Openly, a former school teacher
Speaker 1: and counselor in fort Worth, Texas, has been instrumental in
Speaker 1: trying to get Juneteenth recognized as a national holiday. Lee,
Speaker 1: who is ninety three years old, has been part of
Speaker 1: the Fort Worth Juneteenth festivities for more than forty years.
Speaker 1: She said last year, it's as important as the fourth
Speaker 1: of July. In fact, I dream someday they celebrate from
Speaker 1: the nineteenth to the fourth like they do. Marti Gras.
Speaker 1: I haven't dreamed as large as the Rose Bowl or
Speaker 1: the Macy's Parade, but I'm getting there. To those who
Speaker 1: observe Juneteenth, despite its shaky beginnings and it's still unfulfilled, pledge,
Speaker 1: the day still holds a promise of freedom, independence, equality,
Speaker 1: ideas and ideals always worth celebrating. Today's episode is based
Speaker 1: on the article How Juneteenth Became Black Independence Day on
Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot Com, written by John Donovan. Brain
Speaker 1: Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with
Speaker 1: how stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Clay.
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