On Making Juneteeth A Holiday

Chris,

(This response was meant for the comments section of your blog, but that feature wasn’t working when I tried to reply).

I hear all your counterpoints about Juneteenth and making it another state/national holiday, but I think you’re selling the cultural significance of the day, its potential as a holiday, and even the general public a little short.

First, I doubt that the people who participate in Juneteenth now would be in favor of changing the name. The name has cultural and historic connotations which bland "Emancipation Day" doesn’t convey. The technical emancipation day for slaves could have been marked as either January 1, 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation was delivered. Or it could have been marked as January 1, 1865, when Congress passed the 13th amendment and banned slavery. But, why should either of those events or any other name become the standard for the day when the group of people who were most impacted by emancipation already have a name for the day and a process of commemorating it? Let's also not forget that neither Congress nor any president has stepped up to the plate to advocate for the creation of a holiday marking the end of slavery. Changing the name not only dilutes the historic meaning, but also strips the holiday of some of its cultural connection by taking it away from those who have spent the past 140 years celebrating it and generalizing it to fit into a social structure to which it currently doesn’t belong. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the public being reminded in practice and in name of the origins of the proposed holiday.

Second, I’d be surprised if the public had a problem with a new holiday following only three weeks after an established one. Martin Luther King’s Birthday – which was established during our lifetimes - is only two weeks after New Year’s Day and three weeks after Christmas. Similarly Veteran’s Day and Thanksgiving Day are only two weeks apart. The U.S.public isn’t unused to big national holidays following closely behind each other. Holidays following closely behind each other also happen on a local level. As your chart shows, Boston has lots of holidays which follow in close proximity. New York City has a similar pattern with Jewish holidays that shut down the city regularly. Adding one more holiday to the calendar in the middle of June wouldn’t really have a significant effect on the flow of society.

As mentioned above, the addition of King’s birthday as a holiday illustrates that adding another holiday doesn’t have to mean a zero-sum decision. We can add and have added a holiday before without taking another away.

Assigning a public holiday should involve at least some measure of consensus, but sadly I don’t see how any holiday related to slavery or the Civil War can help but touch a deep nerve of ethnic or regional conflict.

I would agree with you in theory, but the fact that the holiday is already celebrated in states where slavery lasted the longest, existed in its harshest forms, and provoked a war shows that there is some measure of consensus to recognize the day. At the very least, every state on the East Coast and the South should consider making Juneteenth a holiday since every one of those states had slavery at some point. That past is as much a part of the history of the East and South as the Boston Tea Party, the crossing of the Delaware, or the burning of Atlanta. The Midwest and the Plains states have just as much historic connection to Juneteenth given that the Buffalo Soldiers moved from the Union Army to areas which had previously been border states or existed in the Western Territory. Unfortunately, these soldiers were sent to battle against Native Americans and Mexicans in the name of the United States. As such, the fallout from the emancipation of the slaves did have an impact on more than just Blacks and whites in this country.

Beyond that, is there really anything wrong with challenging people to think more deeply about history and historical connections?

Finally, as you wrote, there’s too much emphasis on the Founding Fathers in our holidays. Juneteenth could very well become the beginning of learning how the interactions among various groups in the early stages of our country have brought us to where we are now. After all, Juneteenth isn't just about Black history. It's American history. Learning more about the early history of our country beyond the Founding Fathers is something we could all use more of. The ethnic history months serve their purpose, but sometimes it takes one defining event, like Thanksgiving or July Fourth, to drive home the idea being presented.

ADDENDUM: One more Juneteenth link.

Comments

[Rev. Ronald Myers]

Juneteenth is America's 2nd Independence Day celebration. 29 states recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday or state holiday observance, as well as the Congress of the United States.

Together we will see Juneteenth become a national holiday in America!

"DOC"
Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D.
Chairman
National Juneteenth Holiday Campaign
National Juneteenth Observance Foundation (NJOF)
National Juneteenth Christian Leadership Council (NJCLC)
www.Juneteenth.us
www.19thofJune.com
www.njclc.com
www.JuneteenthJazz.com