Juneteenth

PBS News Hour Report - 6/17/2021 · by Amna Nawaz
President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law on June 17, 2021.

The Root: "Juneteenth isn't just an obscure black holiday. It should be an American celebration."

Woodrow Wilson Center - 11/1/2013
Professor Eric Foner explores: What were Lincoln's motives in deciding for general emancipation? The emancipation itself changed the nature of the war. It reflected a fundamental change in Lincoln's own thinking about the relationship of slavery to the war as well as the future place of blacks in American life.

This presentation of KHOU (Channel 11) a CBS affiliated television station in Houston, Texas, chronicles the history of the Juneteenth holiday and its significance in Texas. It was first shown on June 16, 2021.

In this video, Douglas Flowe, assistant professor of history in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, discusses the history of Juneteenth and its continued resonance for all Americans.
“It’s meaningful for African Americans that every African American should be free in order for there to be a sense of actual freedom,” Flowe said. “But it’s also true that there are a lot of ways in which we should really understand Juneteenth as something all Americans should celebrate. “If we truthfully understand that one person’s freedom requires that all be free, this is not simply about African Americans,” Flowe continued. “The emancipation of enslaved Americans is the moment that the entire country actually becomes free, for everyone. “Juneteenth should be seen as a day that, at least on paper, the country’s collective soul begins to emerge from the darkness,” Flowe added. It’s the day “when precepts of American independence that we usually associate with July 4 begin to be actualized — although with a long road ahead.”
(Juneteenth and collective progress, Douglas Flowe on emancipation, current protests and the moment the nation truly becomes free. By Liam Otten and Tom Malkowicz. Washington University Source June 19, 2020; https://source.wustl.edu/2020/06/juneteenth-and-collective-progress/

Texas Institute for the Preservation of History and Culture (TIPHC)
“This inspiring 26-minute documentary captures the spirit of Juneteenth and explains the origin and evolution of this important date in U.S. history. On June 19, 1865 at Galveston, Texas, Union Gen. Gordon Granger read General Order No. 3, announcing that the Civil War had ended and all slaves in the former Confederate states were now free. This was two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863. However, the enslaved in Texas were the last in the country officially notified of their freedom. Since, June 19th, “Juneteenth,” has become a sacred day for African-American communities internationally to celebrate community pride and heritage.

This DVD, produced by the TIPHC in 2008, provides an insightful perspective about the history of this significant day and remains an invaluable instrument for historical research and community engagement.” (https://www.pvamu.edu/tiphc/videos)

This lecture was presented at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in June 2015. Edna Greene Medford is a professor of history at Howard University, where she teaches courses on Jacksonian America, Civil War and Reconstruction, nineteenth-century history, and African American history. She is the author of Lincoln and Emancipation (2015), a coauthor of The Emancipation Proclamation: Three Views (2006), and the editor of Historical Perspectives of the African Burial Ground Project: New York Blacks and the Diaspora (2009). She is also a recipient of a 2009 bicentennial edition of the "Order of Lincoln" for her study of the president and the Civil War era.

National Museum of African American History and Culture Oral History Specialist Kelly Navies talks about the history of Juneteenth.

"Uncover the deep spiritual significance of America’s newest federal holiday with pastor Rasool Berry in "Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom," a new documentary film presented by the Our Daily Bread Voices Collection and Our Daily Bread Media. Learn how Scripture inspired the faith of enslaved people, travel to the church where America’s first Juneteenth celebration took place, and uncover why newly liberated men and women credited God for their freedom. With special guests Ms. Opal Lee, Lecrae, and more, you’ll journey to Galveston, Texas to discover a faith stronger than suffering."