Juneteenth, the newest federal holiday, is gaining awareness

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During a 2020 Juneteenth celebration in Los Angeles, a young boy passes a painting of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when government troops showed up in Galveston, Texas, to assume command over the state and guarantee all oppressed individuals be liberated, over two years after the Liberation Announcement.

This weekend marks the third year that Juneteenth has been recognized as a federal holiday by President Biden in 2021.

Two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863 to free enslaved Black people held in the Confederacy, the date commemorates the end of slavery in Galveston, Texas.

In 1865, news of Union troops' victory over Confederates slowly spread throughout the South, eventually reaching Galveston's shores.

"We are not celebrating the history of Juneteenth," Galveston, Texas, is where the new federal holiday of Juneteenth originated. Leslie Wilson, a history professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey, stated, "We are celebrating the symbolism of Juneteenth."

"The passage from slavery to freedom is Juneteenth's symbol."

The holiday was first celebrated regionally in Texas, but as Black Americans spread across the country, they brought their customs with them, including commemorations of one of the last remnants of chattel slavery.

"You could say that Juneteenth experienced a renaissance due, in large part, to the second Great Migration that occurred when soldiers returned home from World War II. According to Wilson, "people began traveling from various points in the South to points in the north and to points in the West."

"Juneteenth became a symbol of strength and triumph for African-Americans during the civil rights movement in the 1960s, with Civil Rights and also with the Black Power movement."

The holiday's widespread recognition was sluggish. It was a holiday that Black people celebrated with little recognition or understanding from other cultures and communities for years.

Alex Markle stated, "I'm sure there's a lot I'm totally unaware of on African-American history in the U.S."

During the long holiday weekend, Markle and his fiancée were visiting the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Markle said he didn't learn about Black history events like Juneteenth, Black Wall Street, and the Tulsa race massacre until he was in his forties.

That, like a significant portion of American history, was something I had never learned about and was unaware of for that much of my life, was kind of shocking.

The experience of Markle is not unique.

According to Gallup polling, just 37% of adult Americans said they knew at least something about Juneteenth in 2021, when the holiday received federal recognition.

That percentage would rise to nearly 60% just a year later.

Many Black people have celebrated the idea that African-American history would be more widely recognized as a part of the fabric of the United States as the holiday has grown in popularity.

Juneteenth Was Not the End of Slavery. What You Need to Know About This Significant Day "As a Black person, it means a lot to me to celebrate everybody who was free because it's like so many people don't know," Precious Williams, a Dallas native who was visiting Washington, D.C. over the holiday weekend, stated.

"You know, we celebrate everything in America. As a result, those black holidays are like Juneteenth—everyone ought to be aware of it because it is a part of our history."

However, there are also concerns that corporate money grabs that take advantage of the day might lessen the significance of such a historic occasion.

"The significance of making it an official holiday lies in the fact that it made Juneteenth more widely known to communities that had already observed the holiday. Amara Enyia, a Chicago-based public policy expert, stated, "It appears that the significance, unfortunately, also brings with it some commodification of that day and sort of commercialization of that day as well."

Products branded with Juneteenth are being sold by businesses. That's a big problem because, just last year, big-box retailers like Walmart were criticized for selling a lot of Juneteenth-themed products that many people thought were tasteless and inappropriate.

In addition, some Republicans have used the holiday to their political advantage as part of an ongoing culture war that asserts that honest acknowledgments of racism and race are a scheme to demonize white Americans.

Even though there are controversies, many people use Monday as an opportunity to think about America's history and what the future may hold.

Greg Carr, an associate professor of Africana Studies at Howard University, stated, "Juneteenth celebrations are a chance for this country, for the United States to rethink not only its origins, but the relationship of everybody who lives in this country to each other."

"Juneteenth symbolically becomes a litmus test for this country's possibilities in many ways."