Juneteenth: Emancipation Day (video)

The USA is a casually racist place. Quaker Oats corporation drops "Aunt Jemima" (TDS).

What's June 19th or "Juneteenth"?

Juneteenth (portmanteau of June and nineteenth) is also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, and Liberation Day. It is a U.S. holiday celebrating the liberation of those who had been held as slaves (Native Americans and blacks) in the United States.

Originally a Texas state holiday, it is now celebrated annually on the 19th of June throughout the U.S., with varying official recognition.

It commemorates Union Army General Gordon Granger announcing federal orders in Galveston, Texas, on June 19th, 1865, proclaiming that all people held as slaves in Texas were free.

Although the Emancipation Proclamation had officially freed them almost two and a half years earlier, and the American Civil War had largely ended with the defeat of the Confederate States in April, Texas was the most remote of the slave states, with a low presence of Union troops, so enforcement of the proclamation had been slow and inconsistent.

A common misconception is that this day marks the end of slavery in the U.S. However, the Emancipation Proclamation only applied to states then in rebellion against the U.S.

Slavery was still legal and existed in Union border states until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on Dec. 6, 1865 abolished non-penal slavery nationwide.

• ("Penal slavery" is still legal and widely inflicted on non-whites as parole, disproportionate prosecution rates, and mass incarceration).

Celebrations date back to 1866, at first involving church-centered community gatherings in Texas. It spread across the South and became more commercialized in the 1920s and 1930s, often centering on a food festival.

During the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, it was eclipsed by the struggle for postwar civil rights, but grew in popularity again in the 1970s with a focus on African American freedom and arts.

By the 21st century, Juneteenth was celebrated in most major cities across the U.S. Activists are campaigning for the U.S. Congress to recognize Juneteenth as a national holiday. It is already recognized as a state holiday or special day of observance in 49 of the 50 U.S. states. More