JUNETEENTH

As everyone knows by now, Trump has scheduled his first rally in months on Juneteenth in Tulsa, the site of a horrific massacre ninety-nine years ago.  The term “Juneteenth,” previously familiar only in the Black community and among American historians and literary critics, has been repeated endlessly on cable news, but no one, to my knowledge, has taken a moment to explain its origin and meaning.  It is most often described as a celebration of the end of slavery, but that is not quite right.

Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in the midst of the Civil War, in September, 1863, to take effect January 1, 1864.  The Proclamation did not end slavery.  It declared free the slaves in the states that had joined the rebellion, but not those in states that had sided with the Union.  This was not a purely cosmetic declaration.  It had the effect of freeing those slaves who had escaped from the Confederacy and made their way to the Union lines, a change in status that was important at the time.

This was of course at a time when communication was a good deal more primitive, and when almost all of the slaves had been denied the education necessary to enable them to read.  Texas was far away from the center of the United States, and news of the Emancipation Proclamation was not announced to slaves in Texas until June 19, 1865, two months after the end of the Civil War.  The Proclamation had the effect of freeing the Texas slaves.  The 13^th Amendment, banning all slavery, was not finally ratified until six months later.  June 19^th became a Black celebration, and was referred to as Juneteenth.   The word was used as the title of a posthumous novel extracted from 2000 pages by Ralph Ellison left at his death.