Juneteenth
June 19th, 2023
What is Juneteenth?
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the date on which enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, finally received the news they were free. This was two years after President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, one year after the Senate passed the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, on April 18, 1864, and six months after it was passed by the House on January 31, 1865.
Why is Recognizing Juneteenth Especially Important Now?
The history of Black experiences in the U.S. is “justice delayed” and, all too often, “justice denied.” This is not a Black problem. It is an American problem. Consider the events of the last few years, including a global pandemic that is disproportionately impacting Black and Brown communities, a righteous reckoning over policing and its relationship to anti-Black violence, and the toppling and removal of anti-Black monuments from public spaces. These turbulent times serve as a resounding affirmation that the work of Black studies departments, programs, centers and institutes remain as urgent now as it ever has been.
(Source: The Well.UNC.Edu, 2023, Celebrating Juneteenth and What it Means, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, https://www.unc.edu/posts/2022/06/17/celebrating-juneteenth-and-what-it-means/)
