Juneteenth

Emancipation Day celebration in Richmond, Virginia, ca.1905

Juneteenth (officially Juneteenth National Independence Day ; also Black Independence Day , Jubilee Day , Emancipation Day ) is a commemorative and holiday commemorating the liberation of the African-American population of the United States from slavery , which is celebrated annually on June 19. It is the oldest memorial day commemorating the liberation of slaves in the United States and has been an official national holiday since June 17, 2021. The American word is a suitcase word made up of the English words June (June) and nineteenth(nineteenth) - that is, for the date June 19th . The other names emphasize the joy of liberation.

history

General Order No. 3, June 19, 1865: The People of Texas are informed that, […] all slaves are free.

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, to abolish slavery . It came into effect on January 1, 1863 in those southern states that were still part of the Confederate States of America at the time . The regulation had no legally binding effect on the Union states . Nevertheless, this Executive Order was a first, decisive step towards the complete abolition of slavery in the United States .

The proclamation of emancipation was proclaimed in the defeated southern states during the war of civil secession . On June 19, 1865, the proclamation was made in Galveston in the state of Texas by the commanding general of the Union forces Gordon Granger . This is considered to be the last of the announcements. June 19 was unofficially celebrated as a day of remembrance from 1866.

Announcement of the Juneteenth celebration at the Seattle Center, Seattle , September 19–22. June 1980

Juneteenth was introduced as a public holiday in the state of Texas in 1980 at the initiative of Representative Al Edwards .

In 2020, Remembrance Day received special attention: On the one hand, after the killing of George Floyd on May 25 and the protests that followed, increased attention was paid to the history of racism in the country; on the other hand, the intention of the US President Donald Trump , the launch event of his election campaign (after a corona-related break ) on June 19 in Tulsa - the site of the Tulsa massacre - protests.

On June 16, 2021, the U.S. Congress passed the law making the day a national holiday. The approval of the law was extremely high in the House of Representatives with 415 votes in favor and only 14 votes against and in the Senate even without a vote against. All votes against came from members of the Republican Party . A day later, US President Joe Biden signed the law introducing the holiday; it is the 11th federal holiday in the United States .

literature

• Patricia McKissack, Fredrick McKissack: Days Of Jubilee: The End of Slavery in the United States. Scholastic Press, New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-590-10764-8 (English).

Web links

Commons : Juneteenth  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Sydney Combs: What is Juneteenth - and what does it celebrate? In: National Geographic . June 19, 2019 (English). 
• Jacqueline J. Holness: National observance of Juneteenth is still a struggle. In: Urban Faith. June 17, 2016 (English). 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Doug Chriss: All but four US states celebrate Juneteenth as a holiday. In: CNN . June 19, 2019, accessed June 19, 2020 . History of Juneteenth. In: juneteenth.com. Accessed June 16, 2020 . Paul Debenedetto: Former State Rep. Al Edwards, Who Helped Make Juneteenth A State Holiday, Dies At 83. In: HoustonPublicMedia.org. April 30, 2020, accessed June 19, 2020 . 
    
    
2. ↑ Thorsten Denkler: Trump out of step. Süddeutsche Zeitung, June 21, 2020.
3. ↑ Jillian Berman: One day after Juneteenth, Trump will hold a rally in Tulsa, where a massacre destroyed 'Black Wall Street' nearly 100 years ago. Market Watch, June 1, 2021.
4. ↑ Ashley Lee: 'A crime upon a crime': Trump's Tulsa rally gives 'Watchmen' episode new resonance. Los Angeles Times, June 19, 2020.
5. ^ Annie Grayer, Daniella Diaz: Congress passes bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday. In: CNN politics. June 16, 2021, accessed June 17, 2021 . 
6. ↑ www.whitehouse.gov: Bill Signed: S. 475
7. ^ A Proclamation on Juneteenth Day of Observance, 2021
8. ^ Remarks by President Biden at Signing of the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act
9. ↑ Kate Sullivan, Maegan Vazquez: Biden signs bill into law making Juneteenth a national holiday. In: CNN politics. June 17, 2021, accessed June 17, 2021 . 
10. ^ "Juneteenth": End of slavery is now an official US holiday. In: Der Spiegel . June 18, 2021, accessed June 18, 2021 .