Ship of Fools: Juneteenth

Thread: Juneteenth Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

To visit this thread, use this URL:
http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=70;t=027416

Posted by Crœsos (# 238) on :

Today, June 19, is an American holiday usually referred to as "Juneteenth". It commemorates the emancipation of the last slaves in the former Confederate States of America. June 19, 1865 was the date General Gordon Granger, who had arrived in Texas the previous day to restore order in the wake of the collapse of Confederate authority, read General Order No. 3 from the balcony of Ashton Villa in Galveston.

quote:
The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.

Texas had not been captured during the Civil War, so this was the first time most slaves in that state had heard anything about the Emancipation Proclamation.

Today slavery is almost universally regarded by Americans as one of the biggest blemishes on their national history. So you'd think a holiday celebrating the end of that great national sin would be widely celebrated and quite popular, right? Well, no. For a variety of reasons the holiday is still seen as a largely African-American observance. Some of this goes back to last century's fight over Segregation, but you'd think those battles were long enough ago that Americans could come together now for a holiday declaring that slavery was a bad thing and the country is better off without it.

Any thoughts, particularly from American shipmates, on why Juneteenth seems to get short shrift in the American calendar of holidays?

Posted by Gwai (# 11076) on :

I'd say because people don't like being reminded of their own screwups. But that only works if it is not common for other countries to have holidays based on fixing major cultural sins.

Posted by Sober Preacher's Kid (# 12699) on :

It gets short shrift because it's Texas-specific. The end of slavery across the Confederacy and the Border States of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware was a gradual process that stretched over 1863 to 1865. In areas where the Union Army was active the Emancipation Proclamation was put into immediate effect; in the Border States it was the 13th Amendment that put an end to slavery. In West Virginia it was the unusual turn of politics and the creation of a new state in 1864.

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :

I think Gwai has it right. With the addition of non-black Americans do not have the positive connection.

Posted by Crœsos (# 238) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sober Preacher's Kid:
It gets short shrift because it's Texas-specific. The end of slavery across the Confederacy and the Border States of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware was a gradual process that stretched over 1863 to 1865.

That might be plausible if these other jurisdictions had some kind of local observance, but as far as I know only the District of Columbia has an official, non-Juneteenth holiday celebrating the end of slavery.

[ 19. June 2014, 18:51: Message edited by: Crœsos ]

Posted by sabine (# 3861) on :

According to the website juneteenth.com interest in the celebration and activities on the theme started increasing during the Civil Rights Mov ement in the 50s and 60s and have seen a resurgence.

Alas, though, I think the idea that this is (or should be) an African-American celebration is common. The same holds true, sometimes (at least in my experience) with the official Martin Luther King, jr. holiday which is an official US holiday.

sabine

Posted by Sober Preacher's Kid (# 12699) on :

DC also has an African-American majority.

Slaves in Kentucky weren't freed until December 18th, 1865 with the proclamation of the Thirteenth Amendment.

It's a story that is more complex than just Juneteenth

Posted by Organ Builder (# 12478) on :

I came from Texas originally, so I've known about it all my life. Having a wide variety of friends, I've even attended a barbecue or two. I'm not certain I was celebrating or commemorating, exactly--I just like barbecue and I'll go anywhere someone is willing to share some.

It is VERY Texas-specific, though--even in the African-American community, I wouldn't say it was widely known outside of families with some sort of Texas connection. I've been in the odd position as a scion of Anglo-Irish-Scots immigrants of explaining the holiday to African Americans before.

Posted by Gwai (# 11076) on :

I wouldn't say it's just Texas-specific anymore though. I lived in Texas for years and never even heard of it until I moved to a liberal town in Ohio where my church got together a group of people to go to a celebration.

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :

My friend Bing tells me of celebrations all over the US, and beyond.

Posted by cliffdweller (# 13338) on :

Naw, we only have nat'l holidays when we can get discounts on mattresses or washer/dryers.

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :

And longer weekends, yes?

Posted by Crœsos (# 238) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sober Preacher's Kid:
DC also has an African-American majority.

Slaves in Kentucky weren't freed until December 18th, 1865 with the proclamation of the Thirteenth Amendment.

It's a story that is more complex than just Juneteenth

American independence is more complex than a bunch of guys in wigs signing a document in Philadelphia, but that doesn't seem to have been a bar to establishing July 4 as Independence Day. I have yet to hear anyone object to the observance because certain parts of the Colonies were still under British occupation at the time and the exact timeline for functional independence varied from state to state.

[ 19. June 2014, 20:01: Message edited by: Crœsos ]

Posted by Sober Preacher's Kid (# 12699) on :

It's a bit different when you have two documents at play: the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment. The Emancipation Proclamation never applied in Kentucky. In Virginia, most slaves were emancipated in 1863 and 1864. In the Deep South, it was 1864 as Sherman passed through.

The Emancipation Proclamation was not intended to apply universally; see the Border States. The policy that slavery would end in the United States was not firmly established until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment.

Lastly, the Great Migration may explain the spread of Juneteenth.

Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :

I've largely heard of it as an African-American celebration focused in Texas and only recently has it propagated into other parts of the country.

The Emancipation Proclamation only freed the slaves in the seceding states, not all. It's also true that June 19th marks the beginning of enforcement in Texas of the Emancipation Proclamation. Prior to that, slaves were simply not told about it in Texas. The news arrived earlier in many other places.

Also, freedom is a complex thing to date. Martin Luther King Holiday marks the point where civil rights were legally enforced over the states rights that were ignored since the Tilden-Hayes compromise. Prior to that, the Lincoln Birthday celebration had an association with the liberation and still does. When I was in High School February became "Black History" month. I'm not sure it's still celebrated that much and not seen as patronizing or restrictive.

Posted by Socratic-enigma (# 12074) on :

Just by way of comparison - when San Antonio won the NBA, the commentators paid considerable attention to Australian Patty Mills and the celebration of Mabo Day on June 3rd. - which I think one of them referred to as Australia's most important commemoration.

A panel of our local commentators, after praising the performance of Patty Mills, then said:
"What's Mabo day*?"
"I dunno."
"Next topic..."

S-E

*On June 3rd.1992, the High Court (our Supreme Court) declared that the doctrine of terra nullas - the position that Australia had been (for legal purposes) unoccupied prior to Cook's landing in 1770, was invalid.

Posted by Kyzyl (# 374) on :

I grew up in Houston (which is just down the road from Galveston) where Juneteenth was, and is, a big celebration day. In Mrs. Anderson's seventh grade Texas history class we learned the story outlined in the OP. I consider it a pretty Texas-centric story and I've been surprised at the way the celebration has spread recently.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

One problem is it's ethnically tied. If I were to (say) throw a barbecue and invite my neighbors, I'd feel like I was doing cultural appropriation. You could argue we already do this with Cinco de Mayo and St. Patrick's Day, but neither of those holidays are so emotionally fraught.

Posted by cliffdweller (# 13338) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
One problem is it's ethnically tied. If I were to (say) throw a barbecue and invite my neighbors, I'd feel like I was doing cultural appropriation. You could argue we already do this with Cinco de Mayo and St. Patrick's Day, but neither of those holidays are so emotionally fraught.

Another might be the fact that a BBQ wouldn't really be the most appropriate way to honor the holiday, but seems to be the only way Americans know how to do "holiday".

A more appropriate, yet culturally unfamiliar, way to honor this day would be in a nat'l day of repentance and/or service.

Posted by Gwai (# 11076) on :

quote:
Originally posted by cliffdweller:
A more appropriate, yet culturally unfamiliar, way to honor this day would be in a nat'l day of repentance and/or service.

Definitely not as "fun."

Not sure I agree that it's culturally tied though. I certainly wasn't freed from slavery on that day, but neither were my African-American neighbors. Yes, it's more likely that their relatives were freed than mine since my skin is very pale. I can celebrate that my country ended such a horrid tradition though. I can celebrate the freedom of so many countrymen. It makes more sense to me personally than celebrating Cinco de Mayo. (Which isn't saying people shouldn't celebrate the 5th of May, mind.)

Posted by Lietuvos Sv. Kazimieras (# 11274) on :

As a native Texan but one who has been an expat for years, I always thought of Juneteenth as a venerable Texas holiday, but not one really applicable to other states. It has always been a big Holiday in the African-American community in Texas and it is a shame the day isn't more generally commemorated in the population at large. It has only spread outside Texas in fairly recent decades.

Posted by LQ (# 11596) on :

FWIW, the only notice taken of it in my Facebook feed was from our Edgeman, who is not exactly close to TX. OTOH, I didn't notice any mention on any of the mostly Canadian-weighted black history pages I follow. (Mind you, I wasn't seeking it out, and they're notoriously capricious about what they display to you).

The parallel raised with Cinco de Mayo is an interesting one: I had the impression that it was a Mexican-American expat observance in origin, largely overlooked in the "mother" country.

Posted by Augustine the Aleut (# 1472) on :

Once upon a time, Canadians had Emancipation Day, either August 1 (when the 1833 Act came into force), or the first Sunday in August. In Windsor, St Catharine's, Hamilton, and Toronto, there were parades and church services. Friends from Black Loyalist and Refugee families tell me that it got a lot of mileage until the 1960s, when community and media focus turned to the US Civil Rights movement, and then events began to peter out. The Caribbean immigration of the 1960s and 1970s, and the Africans of the 1980s and 1990s didn't know of it; and these cohorts soon swamped the Canadian-born black population. (quick FB enquiries just got two responses from friends, one Haitian and the other Bajan, who knew nothing of it),

A peripheral activity of my RL existence in the 1990s was to review educational material for Black History Week and I was surprised to hear no mention of it. Speaking with the writers, while they knew of it, they attached no importance to it, saying that it was too complicated for children (?) and that, in any case, it fell outside the school year so teachers would have no interest in it.

Posted by Organ Builder (# 12478) on :

When I was a child we lived for a time in Southern Arizona. The little town had a Cinco de Mayo parade. Given Arizona politics now, I have no idea if the tradition still holds.

In Atlanta, it seems to be an excuse for Mexican restaurants to push the sale of beer.

Posted by LQ (# 11596) on :

There's a big Emancipation Day festival each year on the long weekend at the original Uncle Tom's Cabin in Dresden ON. I think I'll be going to the one in Owen Sound to see my dad play harmonica at the picnic. The Diocese of Toronto published a litany for the occasion. A member of the cathedral has written a book on the history of its observance in Canada, and a book launch was held at the cathedral when it came out.

As a postscript, a Juneteenth post from the Ontario Black History Society did turn up this morning, but it's dated two hours ago so it wasn't just me asleep at the switch!

Posted by Augustine the Aleut (# 1472) on :

Thx LQ-- that was very interesting. I am pleased to see that Emancipation Day still continues. As an authentic, rather than manufactured, celebration, and of a nature that taps into many themes for Canadians, it is to be commended.

Posted by GCabot (# 18074) on :

I grew up in the Northeast and this is the first time I have heard of it. I also spent four years in Houston, but I cannot recall hearing any mention of such a holiday during my time there.

Posted by LQ (# 11596) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Augustine the Aleut:
Thx LQ-- that was very interesting. I am pleased to see that Emancipation Day still continues. As an authentic, rather than manufactured, celebration, and of a nature that taps into many themes for Canadians, it is to be commended.

Not to mention a thematic anchor for a civic holiday often in search of one (not to deny Simcoe his due ... )

Posted by Augustine the Aleut (# 1472) on :

quote:
Originally posted by LQ:

quote:
Originally posted by Augustine the Aleut:
Thx LQ-- that was very interesting. I am pleased to see that Emancipation Day still continues. As an authentic, rather than manufactured, celebration, and of a nature that taps into many themes for Canadians, it is to be commended.
Not to mention a thematic anchor for a civic holiday often in search of one (not to deny Simcoe his due ... )

I suggested this to a certain parliamentarian some years ago and, on follow-up, his staff were not... helpful. I had thought that the August civic holiday had at least five names Civic Holiday, Founder's Day, Simcoe Day, Colonel By Day etc) but I see from Wikipedia that it has at least nine and there may be more.

Posted by Freddy (# 365) on :

quote:
Originally posted by LQ:
There's a big Emancipation Day festival each year on the long weekend at the original Uncle Tom's Cabin in Dresden ON.

Very fitting, since Harriet Beecher Stowe was a reader of Swedenborg, who placed the Second Coming on June 19th, 1770. Swedenborgian groups celebrate the day each year.

UBB.classic^TM 6.5.0