History Between the Lines: What is Juneteenth?

In 2024, most of the US celebrates Juneteenth. Like most, or all of our holidays, we just don’t quite understand the reason behind the furniture sales, “HUGE SAVINGS”, and alcohol poisoning. I present, for your consideration, Memorial Day, Cinco de Mayo, and, Juneteenth.

We have a cringy approach to theme holidays. We incorrectly thank veterans for their service on Memorial Day, wear sombreros and drink Mexican alcohol on Cinco, and get blackout drunk on St. Patrick’s Day. If we truly understood the reasons, motivations, and experiences behind these days, maybe we would have the respect, reverence, and in the case of Juneteenth, a profound anger, for why the holiday even came to exist.

Juneteenth, officially attached to June 19th, is celebrated as the day in 1865, Major General George Granger strode gallantly into Galveston, TX and proclaimed, through General Order Number 3, that all enslaved people were granted their freedoms. On that day, a wonderful white man, representing a benevolent white government, gave Black people the ability to consider themselves newly free thinking, free living, complete people. Uh, yeah.
I choose to see it differently. June 19th, 1865 wasn’t the day we, as a people, were freed. It was the day we were released from imprisonment, sanctioned oppressive subjugation, or even forced, uncompensated servitude. But not freed. To help understand my perspective, I point to the Declaration of Independence. Penned by Thomas Jefferson, ironically a slaveholder, the DOI states things clearly in its second paragraph.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Declaration of Independence 1776

Neither the words of Thomas Jefferson, the DOI, the Emancipation Proclamation issued by Lincoln on January 1, 1863 (30 months before that “transformative” day in Galveston), the Civil War (it wasn’t fought in order to free the slaves, but to preserve the Union. The “freedom” became a nice PR campaign for us today, though), nor the General Order #3 “freed the slaves”. Why not? Because they were already free. In fact, according to Jefferson, we were, and are, born free.
I say all this because for too long, the picture has been painted that Black people somehow allowed themselves to assume the role of “slave” or “enslaved person”, though the term “person” has been added only recently as a reminder of the atrocity towards a group of fellow human beings that began in 1619. History would have us believe that “back in the day” groups of Africans accepted the role as slave, and it was another group of “benevolent, paternal” whites who put an end to that, rescuing from the scoundrel enslavers those poor, wretched, cursed (Cain and Abel?), ignorant souls who had allowed themselves to be made into beasts of burden and woe.
We keep perpetuating the misconception that Juneteenth is a celebration of spiritual and celestial, as much as physical freedom, and that the freedom was “given” to us by whites. Specifically, the emphasis is on the Union Army striding into town, making free our poor wretched ancestors. By celebrating this freedom every year, we further ingrain into our collective psyche, through the false narratives and rhetoric of bigots, that Black people were/are not equal under the eyes of God, or even within social realms. That we were not, and still are not, equal in human value to whites. It is only because whites chose to allow enslaved people to consider themselves free, that they were now free. Freedom is presented as a physical condition, not a state of mind. In truth, our ancestors were not freed, they were released from unholy captivity and bondage; there is a difference.
There are many in the Black community who “celebrate” Juneteenth with festivals, parades, BBQs, and other big events, yet still act as though they are only able to enjoy freedom as it is given to them by others. Nelson Mandela spent three decades imprisoned never convicted of a crime, yet always lived as though he was a free man, knowing his mind and his soul could not be controlled by others. He walked out of a South African prison and into the presidency.
I choose to see Juneteenth not as a day of celebration, but as a reminder to me that someone who benefits from my suffering will never willingly or altruistically end my suffering. My suffering or my happiness is dependent on me and how I view myself. I cannot, I will not wait for a Major General Granger to show up and tell me I am now equal to, free to go, or any other “bestowed by man” change of status or self-perception. And I am done believing the “history lessons” that try to tell me to “not be upset about the “original sin” of slavery in this country. “Your people were ok with it, but we rescued them from it and granted them their freedom. Aren’t we wonderful?!”

I will continue to get the true story by reading between the lines.