Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren vocal Bam here. Every year on June nineteen, millions
Speaker 1: of people across America come together to celebrate Juneteenth with
Speaker 1: parties and parades, prayer, breakfasts, and golf tournaments, cookouts and music.
Speaker 1: The holiday is now officially recognized in forty seven states
Speaker 1: plus Washington, d C. Though it hasn't been made a
Speaker 1: national holiday yet despite having been around for more than
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty years. We spoke with Paula Austin,
Speaker 1: a professor of African American studies and history at Boston University.
Speaker 1: She said, you'd be surprised. There are many students who
Speaker 1: get to my class and they sort of never learned
Speaker 1: about the history of enslavement. They've never learned about the
Speaker 1: Civil rights movement. I think they've had students who, because
Speaker 1: of where they're from or their families, know about Juneteenth
Speaker 1: and have actually participated in the celebrations. But most students
Speaker 1: come and they don't know. But let's go back to
Speaker 1: the beginning. On June eighteen sixty five, more than two
Speaker 1: months after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses
Speaker 1: S grant at apematics, which all but ended the Civil War.
Speaker 1: A U. S. Army officer by the name of Major
Speaker 1: General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas with two momentous announcements,
Speaker 1: the end of the Civil War and with it, the
Speaker 1: end of slavery. Nobody is quite sure why it took
Speaker 1: so long for the news of emancipation to reach Texas.
Speaker 1: Several stories have been told throughout the years, though none
Speaker 1: has ever been confirmed, including one of an earlier messenger
Speaker 1: who was killed on his way to Texas to tell
Speaker 1: the news of freedom. Others believe that some enslavers knew
Speaker 1: the truth but simply continued going about business as usual.
Speaker 1: The most likely is simply that there were not enough
Speaker 1: troops to enforce the emancipation Proclamation, whether enslaved people knew
Speaker 1: about it or not, so things remained status quo, that
Speaker 1: is until Major General Granger showed up. After Granger's announcement,
Speaker 1: some of the two hundred and fifty thousand people in
Speaker 1: Texas immediately left for the promise of true freedom in
Speaker 1: the North, while others traveled to rejoin family members. One
Speaker 1: formerly enslaved person, Molly Harrold, said in the slave narratives
Speaker 1: of Texas. We all walked down the road, singing and
Speaker 1: shouting to beat the band. Others stayed defined, paying work
Speaker 1: in the fields and elsewhere. That day marks what is
Speaker 1: now often called Black Independence Day or the Black fourth
Speaker 1: of July. It's the American celebration of freedom from slavery.
Speaker 1: Juneteenth was first observed in Texas in eighteen sixty six.
Speaker 1: It wasn't officially recognized as a holiday in any state
Speaker 1: until Texas did so in nineteen seventy nine. Since then,
Speaker 1: only North Dakota, South Dakota, and Hawaii have yet to
Speaker 1: declare it a holiday. In recent years, both the U. S.
Speaker 1: House of Representatives and the U. S. Senate have formally
Speaker 1: recognized June nineteenth as Juneteenth Independence Day. Various movements to
Speaker 1: grant the day status as a national holiday are ongoing.
Speaker 1: U S. Senator Corey Booker said in twenty eighteen, on
Speaker 1: this day, we must confront the ugly parts of our
Speaker 1: history and honor the slaves who suffered and died under
Speaker 1: a repressive regime. We must also pay tribute to all
Speaker 1: those who had the strength and conviction to fight to
Speaker 1: end slavery and keep our union together. Juneteenth Independence Day
Speaker 1: is also an important moment to recognize how far we've
Speaker 1: come and take note of how far we have yet
Speaker 1: to go. Certainly, during the original Juneteenth, there was still
Speaker 1: a lot of work to be done. It came just
Speaker 1: months after the Civil War ended and two years after
Speaker 1: the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln. The
Speaker 1: Thirteenth Amendment to the U. S Constitution, which abolished slavery,
Speaker 1: had been passed by Congress and was well on its
Speaker 1: way to being ratified by the States, but the fourteenth
Speaker 1: and fifteenth guaranteeing equal protection and the right to vote
Speaker 1: to all citizens regardless of skin color, were still a
Speaker 1: couple of years off, and not all enslaved people in
Speaker 1: Texas were immediately freed. Some held by defiant plantation owners
Speaker 1: were not emancipated until much later. Some formerly enslaved people
Speaker 1: who tried to leave, historical reports show, were tracked down
Speaker 1: and killed. Many more stepped into a future of poverty, fear,
Speaker 1: and uncertainty. Austin suggests that many Americans ignorance about Juneteenth
Speaker 1: stems from a disinclination to completely face the country's past
Speaker 1: with slavery, and it's far reaching and continuing aftermath. Still
Speaker 1: Juneteenth has persevered. It's observance has waned through the years
Speaker 1: under the oppression of Jim Crow laws and attitudes, but
Speaker 1: the festivities that began in Texas eventually spread to more states,
Speaker 1: and the idea of commemorating black independence picked up through
Speaker 1: the civil rights era of the nineteen sixties, and the
Speaker 1: parties continue today. Austin said, the kinds of celebrations that
Speaker 1: I've 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. This year,
Speaker 1: she'll walk from the Fort Worth Convention Center to the
Speaker 1: Will Rogers Colisseum, leading a caravan and urging people to
Speaker 1: sign a petition for the cause. Lee, who is ninety
Speaker 1: three years old, has been part of the Fort Worth
Speaker 1: Juneteenth festivities for more than forty years. She said last year,
Speaker 1: it's as important as the Fourth of July. In fact,
Speaker 1: I dream someday they celebrate from the nineteenth to the
Speaker 1: fourth like they do. Marty Gras, I haven't dreamed as
Speaker 1: large as the Rose Bowl or the Macy's Parade, but
Speaker 1: I'm getting there. To those who observe June tenth, despite
Speaker 1: its shaky beginnings and it's still unfulfilled, pledge, the day
Speaker 1: still holds a promise of freedom, independence, equality, ideas and
Speaker 1: ideals always worth celebrating. Today's episode was written by John
Speaker 1: Donovan and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this
Speaker 1: and lots of other topics, visit how Stuff works dot com.
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