All Aboard: Juneteenth
ACT’s DE&I Committee celebrates Juneteenth, held on June 19, to commemorate the ending of slavery in the United States. Juneteenth is a blending of the words June and nineteenth honoring June 19, 1865 when Major General Gordon Granger ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas at the end of the Civil War.
During the Civil War, emancipation came at various times despite President Abraham Lincoln issuing the final Emancipation Proclamation (Proclamation 85) on January 1, 1863. Large celebrations of emancipation, or jubilees, took place on various dates although celebration on June 19th became widespread, even though the date did not mark the unequivocal end of slavery, even in Texas.
In 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law and officially recognized Juneteenth as a federal holiday.
Early celebrations included large meals with people wearing their best clothing. Many formerly enslaved people would take a pilgrimage to Galveston. Today, local celebrations include public readings on the Emancipation Proclamation, singing traditional songs such as Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and Lift Every Voice and Sing, and readings by Ralph Ellison, Maya Angelou, and other notable African-American writers.
The Juneteenth flag
The Juneteenth flag was first designed in 1997 and has been updated slightly since. Learn more about the symbolism here.
Learn more about Juneteenth:
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Next month we will be taking a different approach as we highlight the upcoming ACT International Conference in Denver. Stay tuned to learn more about the DE&I related topics at the conference and don’t forget to register!