By Annisa Essack
17:06:2021

Juneteenth is one of the essential anniversaries in America’s history and is sometimes called Emancipation Day, Freedom Day or the second Independence Day.

Juneteenth gets its name from combining “June” and “nineteenth,” the day in 1865 that Gen. Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, bearing a message of freedom for the slaves there.

On arrival, he read out General Order Number 3, informing the residents that slavery would no longer be accepted. All slaves were now free and treated as hired workers if they chose to remain on the plantations.

Not all the 250 000 slaves existing in Galveston were freed immediately, as unwilling slave owners were reluctant to give up free labour; some only released their slaves when they were forced to, in person, by a government representative. Others would wait until one final harvest was complete, and some would outright refuse to submit.

It was a difficult time for black people, as some former slaves who were freed or attempted to get free were attacked and killed.

The freed slaves and their descendants would travel annually in honour of Juneteenth. A tradition That tradition soon spread to other states, however, but it was not uncommon for these celebrations by black folk in public spaces, forcing black people to get creative.

Initially, Juneteenth celebrations involved helping newly freed black people learn about their voting rights and to celebrate and lift each other.

After literally decades of activists campaigning for change, the US Congress had unanimously approved a bill on Tuesday that would make Juneteenth a legal public holiday. President Biden on Thursday signed legislation to enshrine June 19 as the national day to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States.

The law goes into effect immediately, making Friday the first federal Juneteenth holiday in American history. On Thursday, the federal Office of Personnel Management announced that most federal employees would observe it on Friday, since June 19 falls on a Saturday this year.

Shane Bolles Walsh, a lecturer with the University of Maryland’s African American Studies Department, said, It is a day to “commemorate the hardships endured by ancestors,” Walsh said. He added, “It exemplifies the survival instinct, the ways that we as a community make something out of nothing. It’s about empowerment and hopefulness.”