“On the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”

The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln, is familiar to most Americans. The day slaves in the United States of America were freed. Except for those who weren’t.

In Texas, it would be another two-and-a-half years, and after the Civil War was over, before the 250,000 Texas slaves knew they were free. On June 19, 1865, Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger led a force of approximately 2,000 soldiers to Galveston, Texas, to deliver a very important message. There were no more slaves anywhere in the United States.

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The long emancipation

Upon his arrival, Granger read General Order No. 3: “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.”

To some people, Juneteenth seems like a new holiday, and officially, it is. It became a national holiday in 2021 and a state holiday in 2022. However, Juneteenth — also called Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, Second Independence Day — is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration recognizing the end of slavery in the United States. A Gallup poll in 2021 found that 96% of Black American adults knew at least a little about Juneteenth. That same poll found that 68% of white American adults knew “little” or “nothing” about it.

Artwork of the Celebration of Emancipation Day in Charleston, S.C., Jan. 8, 1877. The procession formed near Citadel Square. | Associated Press
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How Juneteenth became a family holiday for us

Count our family in the group that didn’t know much until Juneteenth became a national holiday. When we learned about it, we knew we needed to incorporate the celebration into our family traditions. We have books and stories about Juneteenth and, of course, we have added new food traditions. We have tried peanut soup (my husband and I loved it, the kids not so much), different types of chicken, non-alcoholic red punch, and red beans and rice, which have become a family favorite.

You may notice a trend of red food here. That’s not by accident. According to a PBS article from 2023, food historian Michael Twitty says the tradition of eating red foods on Juneteenth “likely came from the enslaved Yoruba and Kongo people brought to Texas in the 19th century. The color red can represent power, sacrifice, and transformation in both of those cultures.” An article in Rough Draft Atlanta takes a different approach and says it’s more about that foods are in season in mid-June, foods like watermelon, strawberries and tomatoes.

I was reminded recently of the story of Opal Lee, now called the “Grandmother of Juneteenth.” Opal, now 98 years old, celebrated Juneteenth when she was a little girl in Texas. When she was 12 years old, she moved with her family to Fort Worth. They had been in their home for four days when 500 white rioters forced her family out of their home and set it on fire.

“The people didn’t want us. They started gathering. The paper said the police couldn’t control the mob. My father came with a gun and police told them if he busted a cap they’d let the mob have us,” Lee recalled in a 2021 interview. “They started throwing things at the house and when they left, they took out the furniture and burned it and burned the house.”

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It was June 19, 1939.

That incident helped her realize, she would recall later, that Juneteenth “wasn’t just about a festival.” Many years later, at age 89, she walked from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C., a distance of 1,400 miles to raise awareness of the importance of Juneteenth and to lobby for it to become a federal holiday. She told NPR, “I felt like if a little old lady in tennis shoes was walking from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., somebody would take notice.”

They noticed. Not only do we have an official holiday reminding Americans of the end of slavery, but last year, Lee also received the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from President Joe Biden. Then, a couple of days before Juneteenth, 2024, Lee moved into a new home built for her on the site of the home destroyed in 1939. A full-circle moment.

This year, Utah has a number of celebrations marking Juneteenth. If you see us there, come say hi! We can celebrate together.

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