Making Juneteenth a moment to reflect...
I’m a huge fan of portmanteaus.
(“Huh?” you said? “A Portman-what?” A portmanteau combines two abbreviated words that usually share a common set of letters to create a new word.) I love portmanteaus so much that I even make them up. For example, I suggested to a fellow math tutor whose company name is Mack Academics that she re-brand as “Mackademics.” (So far, this fellow math tutor hasn’t done so, but I’m still hoping!) Some portmanteaus, like bromance and brunch, are now so popular that we’ve forgotten that they even were once two words. I hope that this never happens to one of my favorite portmanteaus, Juneteenth. If June 19th – “Juneteenth” – doesn’t ring a bell, let me explain. (I’m also an online history tutor.)
Juneteenth Orders, photo from Wikimedia Commons
On June 19, 1865, in Galveston, Texas, Union General Gordon Granger read aloud orders that all enslaved peoples were free.
Though the Emancipation Proclamation had freed slaves in the Confederacy in 1863, the Union Army hadn’t been able to enforce emancipation throughout certain places in the South, including Texas, until the end of the Civil War. The first Juneteenth celebration occurred in 1866. Today, African Americans around the country continue to commemorate the bittersweet anniversary on June nineteenth. OK, so that’s this online history tutor ‘s “Reader’s Digest” explanation of Juneteenth (and my thanks to Wikipedia, where I fact-checked).
Emancipation Day in Richmond, 1905, photo from Wikimedia Commons.
As a concerned American who’s also more than just an online history tutor , though, I wonder how Juneteenth will be remembered this year.
In the wake of massive protests against police brutality and the racial injustice plaguing the criminal justice system, I wonder if Juneteenth, 2020, will be celebratory or solemn? Will it commemorate how far we’ve come from slavery, or how far we still have to go? President Trump has delayed his Tulsa rally by one day to avoid it coinciding with Juneteenth. Will he and other political leaders use this pause as a moment to lead a national reflection on race, American history — including the 1921 Tulsa massacre — and how we might begin the process of reconciliation and healing to move all of our citizens and our nation forward?
Emancipation Day, June 19, 1900, photo from Wikimedia Commons
As an online history tutor who’s also white, I have neither answers nor prescriptions. Of course, I hope that the Juneteenth commemorations will be peaceful – and that awareness of this holiday and the need for Americans of every color to work toward freedom for all. I do recommend that we all try to do what it is that we do best to try and open dialogue and forge connections with those who are different from us. Maybe I’m naive, but 155 years after Granger’s proclamation and 55 years after the Voting Rights Act, it seems that legislation — while completely necessary — does little to change the contents of people’s hearts. Perhaps learning, reading, eating, and laughing together are the first steps toward lasting change.
How do or will you celebrate Juneteenth?
Will you observe the holiday differently this year? If so, how? Place your responses in the comments below; I look forward to reading them!
Until next week,