On Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo has approved the bill for Juneteenth, a day celebrating enslaved humans’ freedom in the United States, as a New York state holiday.
What We Know:
- Governor Cuomo of New York City utilized an executive order to make Juneteenth a paid holiday for state workers this year. NYC state legislature had already passed a bill in July to make it a state holiday.
- Cuomo mentioned in the following statement:
“This new public holiday will serve as a day to recognize the achievements of the Black community, while also providing an important opportunity for self-reflection on the systemic injustices that our society still faces today.”
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- President Abraham Lincoln published the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863. However, it was not heard by everyone immediately. It was not until June 19th, 1865, that oppressed people in Galveston, Texas, found out about it from Union army personnel, making them the last to know about their freedom.
- Juneteenth can also be referred to as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Liberation Day, and Emancipation Day.
- The first Juneteenth festival took place a year later in 1866 in Texas, and immediately expanded to other parts of the South and finally led a commercial status in the 1920s and ’30s. Food was often the focus of the festival. People dressed in their Sunday best and activities such as baseball, fishing, and rodeos were done at these events. Ex-slaves and their descendants would often make a journey to Galveston, Texas.
- Today’s activists are shifting for federal acknowledgment. Historian Karlos Hill states that Juneteenth tells the country how freedom and justice in the U.S. have continuously been limited for Black people.
- In an era still marked by police brutality, racial prejudice, and senseless acts of violence done against Black Americans, Juneteenth can represent something different for the country.
Juneteenth has a deep history that honors Blackness and continues to reach for racial equality and justice.
