The US celebrates a commemorative day known as Juneteenth; it is a combination of the month, June and 19. It is usually celebrated in black communities however, this time around it was a nation-wide celebration.
What is Juneteenth? You might ask?
Well, this day which is also known as Freedom Day or Jubilee Day, marks the freedom of enslaved African-Americans.
The Black Lives Matter movement against racism and police brutality, in cause of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks and others, also contributed to the reason why more US citizens joined in the celebration this year.
Companies like Spotify, Twitter, Google and Lyft joined ib the celebration and just added Juneteenth to their calendars for the first time.
The national focus has resulted in a sudden push to make Juneteenth a national holiday, including a petition with real momentum. Some companies and organizations are also giving employees the day off to observe the holiday, including Nike, Target and the NFL. On Friday, entrepreneur Elon Musk agreed to make Juneteenth a permanent US holiday for his companies Tesla and Space X. – CNET
Report says that Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and read a federal order abolishing the institution of slavery in the state:
“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.”
Brief History of Junteenth from CNET:
The moment was significant. Texas had been the last of the Confederate states where enslavement continued, despite President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation to end slavery in 1863 and despite the end of the Civil War on April 9, 1865. Texas was the most remote state in the Confederacy, and it took Union forces until June to reach Texas in sufficient numbers to announce and enforce the federal order that ended slavery there. (The 13th Amendment, which added the abolishment of slavery to the Constitution, passed Congress in January 1865, but wasn’t ratified and adopted until December 1865.)
Since June 19, 1865, Americans have observed and celebrated Juneteenth as Emancipation Day, a day of freedom. In 1980, Texas began marking Juneteenth as an official state holiday, the first state to do so. Now, nearly all states commemorate or observe Juneteenth to some degree.
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