Juneteenth gaining as a state holiday amid old resistance
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Nift X Kila m performs at the Leimert Park Juneteenth Festival in Los Angeles on Juneteenth 2023. Photo: Sarah Reingewirtz/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images
Juneteenth, the once-obscure day commemorating the emancipation of enslaved people in Texas, has slowly gained recognition across more states following the murder of George Floyd.
The big picture: Its growth comes even as some states try to limit the discussion of enslavement in public schools and resist official recognition of Juneteenth.
- The federal holiday is only officially recognized in 29 states and Washington, D.C.
Driving the news: Last month, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear designated Juneteenth as a holiday for state executive branch workers, becoming the latest to recognize Juneteenth officially.
- Beshear's action came after unsuccessful attempts to establish Juneteenth as a statewide holiday and to prohibit discrimination based on hairstyles in the state's GOP-majority legislature.
Catch up quick: President Biden signed legislation in 2021 establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday, the first holiday established since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was created in 1983.
Context: Juneteenth commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, learned of their freedom, over two months after the Civil War had ended — and more than two years after Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation declared them free.
Zoom out: Juneteenth is commemorated in various ways, such as parades, festivals, and local events, across all 50 states, with over half formally designated as an official public holiday.
- Some state workers receive Juneteenth as a paid holiday or use it as a floating holiday.
- According to the most recent data from Pew Research Center, the following states have not made Juneteenth official: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Vermont, Wisconsin, Wyoming.
Yes, but: Just before efforts intensified following Floyd's killing, the 2019 release of the New York Times' 1619 Project sparked controversy surrounding discussions about race, particularly regarding enslavement.
- Recent book bans in the U.S. have disproportionately focused on books about race and the experiences of people of color.
What they're saying: Jesse Holland, associate director at The George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs, tells Axios that recognizing Juneteenth federally and statewide is essential for honoring our shared history and promoting inclusivity and progress.
- "The more people who recognize Juneteenth, the better," he said.
- Holland said many people want their history "to be mythology; they want to only see the good things and not the totality of what happened to get us to where we are today."
The bottom line: Celebrating Juneteenth recognizes the positive fact that slavery ended while also acknowledging the negative reality that slavery once existed, Holland said, noting that Texans knew slavery was over but withheld that information.
- "The more we know about history, the more we can avoid these situations in the future. Those who know their history are least likely to repeat it."
Holland, an author, historian, and journalism professor, says ignoring the holiday is "saying something for their citizens — white, Black, Hispanic or Indigenous.
- "We need Americans to speak in one voice on our histories, triumphs, trials and tribulations as we have matured as a country."
