Juneteenth trivia: 65 amazing facts about the American celebration!

Juneteenth is an American celebration that commemorates the Hune 19, 1865! It is also called Freedom Day!

So let’s find out some more trivia and facts about this celebration!

1. Juneteenth is also known as Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day
2. It is an American holiday that commemorates the June 19, 1865
3. On this day was the announcement of the abolition of slavery in the U.S. state of Texas
4. And more generally the emancipation of enslaved African Americans throughout the former Confederate States of America
5. Texas was the most remote of the slave states
6. And the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, was not enforced there until after the Confederacy collapsed
7. The name of the observance is a portmanteau of “June” and “nineteenth”, the date of its celebration
8. Juneteenth is recognized as a state holiday or special day of observance in 46 states
9. Observance is primarily in local celebrations
10. Traditions include public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation
11. Singing traditional songs such as “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing”
12. And reading of works by noted African-American writers such as Ralph Ellison and Maya Angelou
13. Celebrations include rodeos, street fairs, cookouts, family reunions, park parties, historical reenactments, or Miss Juneteenth contests
14. The Mascogos, descendants of Black Seminoles, of Coahuila, Mexico also celebrate Juneteenth
15. During the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862
16. With an effective date of January 1, 1863
17. It declared that all enslaved persons in the Confederate States of America in rebellion and not in Union hands were to be freed
18. This excluded the five states known later as border states
19. Which were the four “slave states” not in rebellion
20. They were Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and Missouri
21. And those counties of Virginia soon to form the state of West Virginia
22. And also the three zones under Union occupation: the state of Tennessee, lower Louisiana, and Southeast Virginia
23. More isolated geographically, Texas was not a battleground
24. And thus the people held there as slaves were not affected by the Emancipation Proclamation unless they escaped
25. Planters and other slaveholders had migrated into Texas from eastern states to escape the fighting
26. Many brought enslaved people with them
27. Increasing by the thousands the enslaved population in the state at the end of the Civil War
28. Although most enslaved people lived in rural areas, more than 1,000 resided in both Galveston and Houston by 1860
29. With several hundred in other large towns
30. By 1865, there were an estimated 250,000 enslaved people in Texas
31. The news of General Robert E. Lee’s surrender on April 9 reached Texas later in the month
32. The Army of the Trans-Mississippi did not surrender until June 2
33. On June 18, Union Army General Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston Island with 2,000 federal troops to occupy Texas on behalf of the federal government
34. The following day, standing on the balcony of Galveston’s Ashton Villa, Granger read aloud the contents of “General Order No. 3”
35. Announcing the total emancipation of those held as slaves
36. Formerly enslaved people in Galveston rejoiced in the streets after the announcement
37. Although in the years afterward many struggled to work through the changes against resistance of whites
38. The following year, freedmen organized the first of what became the annual celebration of Juneteenth in Texas
39. In some cities African-Americans were barred from using public parks because of state-sponsored segregation of facilities
40. Across parts of Texas, freed people pooled their funds to purchase land to hold their celebrations
41. Such as Houston’s Emancipation Park, Mexia’s Booker T. Washington Park, and Emancipation Park in Austin
42. Although the date is sometimes referred to as the “traditional end of slavery in Texas” it was given legal status in a series of Texas Supreme Court decisions between 1868 and 1874
43. In the early 20th century, economic and political forces led to a decline in Juneteenth celebrations
44. From 1890 to 1908, Texas and all former Confederate states passed new constitutions or amendments that effectively disenfranchised black people
45. Excluding them from the political process
46. Democrat-dominated state legislatures passed Jim Crow laws imposing second-class status
47. The Great Depression forced many black people off farms and into the cities to find work
48. In these urban environments, African Americans had difficulty taking the day off to celebrate
49. The Second Great Migration began during World War II
50. When many black people migrated to the West Coast where skilled jobs in the defense industry were opening up
51. From 1940 through 1970, in the second wave of the Great Migration, more than 5 million black people left Texas, Louisiana and other parts of the South for the North and West Coast
52. As historian Isabel Wilkerson writes, “The people from Texas took Juneteenth Day to Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, and other places they went”
53. By the 1950s and 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement focused the attention of African-American youth on the struggle for racial equality and the future
54. But many linked these struggles to the historical struggles of their ancestors
55. Following the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign to Washington, DC called by Rev. Ralph Abernathy
56. Many attendees returned home and initiated Juneteenth celebrations in areas where the day was not previously celebrated
57. Since the 1980s and 1990s, the holiday has been more widely celebrated among African-American communities
58. In 1994 a group of community leaders gathered at Christian Unity Baptist Church in New Orleans, Louisiana to work for greater national celebration of Juneteenth
59. Expatriates have celebrated it in cities abroad, such as Paris
60. Some US military bases in other countries sponsor celebrations
61. In addition to those of private groups
62. Although the holiday is still mostly unknown outside African-American communities, it has gained mainstream awareness through depictions in entertainment media
63. Such as episodes of TV series Atlanta (2016) and Black-ish (2017)
64. The latter of which featured musical numbers about the holiday by Aloe Blacc, The Roots and Fonzworth Bentley
65. Organizations such as the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation are seeking a Congressional designation of Juneteenth as a national day of observance